Corneal endothelial decompensation is a serious condition that frequently requires treatment via corneal transplantation which contributes to a global shortage in donor corneas. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of aqueous humor total antioxidant capacity (TAC) on corneal endothelial health. There is an urgent need for discovering protective factors to combat corneal endothelial cell (CEC) loss. For methods, we developed a cupric ion‐based TAC (CuTAC) assay to analyze TAC level in a small volume of aqueous humor, that is, 10 μL per test, and examined the influences of ascorbic acid (AA) and antioxidant proteins on aqueous humor TAC. To broaden the investigation, we conducted a case–control study with patients classified into two groups, an insufficient endothelial cell density (ECD < 2100 cells/mm²) group, and a control group. These groups were formed based on baseline ECD values and were used to evaluate the influence of aqueous humor TAC and AA on overall corneal endothelial health. A CuTAC assay was used to accurately measure aqueous humor TAC without the need for sample dilution. After analyzing a total of 164 human aqueous humor samples, we found that AA was the major contributor to aqueous humor TAC (73.2%). In addition, TAC and AA levels in the IECD and control groups were both found to be significantly different (1.168 vs. 1.592 mM, p = 0.009 and 0.856 vs. 1.178 mM, p = 0.016). TAC and AA were considered independent protective factors against IECD with adjusted odds ratios of 0.02 (p = 0.017) and 0.023 (p = 0.033), respectively. In conclusion, aqueous humor TAC and AA contribute to the maintenance of sufficient corneal ECD, and our CuTAC assay can be a useful tool for analyzing TAC using only a small aqueous humor sample volume.

中文翻译：

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房水总抗氧化能力分析及其与角膜内皮健康的相关性


角膜内皮失代偿是一种严重的疾病，经常需要通过角膜移植进行治疗，这导致全球供体角膜短缺。因此，本研究的目的是分析房水总抗氧化能力（TAC）对角膜内皮健康的影响。迫切需要发现保护因子来对抗角膜内皮细胞（CEC）损失。在方法方面，我们开发了一种基于铜离子的 TAC (CuTAC) 测定法来分析小体积房水中的 TAC 水平，即每次测试 10 μL，并检查抗坏血酸 (AA) 和抗氧化蛋白对房水中的影响。幽默TAC。为了扩大研究范围，我们进行了病例对照研究，将患者分为两组：内皮细胞密度不足（ECD < 2100 个细胞/mm ² ）组和对照组。这些组是根据基线 ECD 值组成的，用于评估房水 TAC 和 AA 对整体角膜内皮健康的影响。 CuTAC 测定用于准确测量房水 TAC，无需样品稀释。在分析了总共 164 个人类房水样本后，我们发现 AA 是房水 TAC 的主要贡献者（73.2%）。此外，IECD 组和对照组的 TAC 和 AA 水平均存在显着差异（1.168 vs. 1.592 mM， p = 0.009 和 0.856 vs. 1.178 mM， p = 0.016）。 TAC 和 AA 被认为是 IECD 的独立保护因素，调整后的比值比分别为 0.02 ( p = 0.017) 和 0.023 ( p = 0.033)。 总之，房水 TAC 和 AA 有助于维持足够的角膜 ECD，并且我们的 CuTAC 测定可以成为仅使用少量房水样本量来分析 TAC 的有用工具。