Detergent chemicals, widely used in household products, in pharmaceutical, medical, cosmetic and industrial fields, have been linked to side effects and involved in several eye diseases. On the ocular surface, detergents can interfere with the corneal epithelium, the most superficial layer of the cornea, representing a line of defence against external aggression. Despite its major role in numerous biological functions, there is still little data regarding disruption of lipid homeostasis induced by ocular irritants. To this purpose, a lipidomic analysis using UPLC-HRMS/MS-ESI ± was performed on human corneal epithelial (HCE) cells incubated with three widely known ocular irritants: benzalkonium chloride (BAK), sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and Triton X-100 (TXT). We found that these ocular irritants lead to a profound modification of the HCE cell lipidome. Indeed, the cell content of ceramide species increased widely while plasmalogens containing polyunsaturated fatty acid species, especially docosahexaenoic acids, decreased. Furthermore, these irritants upregulated the activity of phospholipase A₂. The present study demonstrates that BAK, SLS and TXT induced disruption of the cell lipid homeostasis, highlighting that lipids mediate inflammatory and cell death processes induced by detergents in the cornea. Lipidomics may thus be regarded as a valuable tool to investigate new markers of corneal damage.

广泛用于家庭产品，制药，医疗，化妆品和工业领域的洗涤剂化学物质已与副作用相关，并涉及多种眼部疾病。在眼表上，清洁剂会干扰角膜最表层的角膜上皮，代表了抵御外部侵害的防线。尽管其在许多生物学功能中起着主要作用，但是关于由眼刺激物引起的脂质稳态破坏的数据仍然很少。为此，对与三种广为人知的眼刺激物孵育的人角膜上皮（HCE）细胞进行了UPLC-HRMS / MS-ESI±脂质组分析：苯扎氯铵（BAK），十二烷基硫酸钠（SLS）和Triton X- 100（TXT）。我们发现这些眼刺激物导致HCE细胞脂质组的深刻修饰。实际上，神经酰胺种类的细胞含量广泛增加，而含有多不饱和脂肪酸种类，尤其是二十二碳六烯酸的缩醛磷脂减少。此外，这些刺激物上调了磷脂酶A的活性₂。本研究表明，BAK，SLS和TXT诱导了细胞脂质稳态的破坏，突显了脂质介导了清洁剂在角膜中诱导的炎症和细胞死亡过程。因此，脂质组学可以被认为是研究角膜损伤新标志物的有价值的工具。