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In the study, the surface of the eye in the people who
wore contact lenses had triple the proportion of certain bacteria species, on average, compared with the people in the study who did not wear the lenses, researchers found.
Moreover, the researchers found differences in the composition of the
bacterial community on the surface of people's eyes. In the people who wore contact lenses, this composition more closely resembled the bacteria on the individuals' eyelids, as compared to the nonwearers. The study included nine people who wore contacts and 11 who did not.
"Our research clearly shows that putting a foreign object, such as a
contact lens, on the eye is not a neutral act," study author Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello, a microbiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center, said in a statement.
More research is needed to examine whether these changes in eye bacteria come from fingers touching the eye, or whether the pressure of a contact lens somehow alters the immune system in the eye, she said.
The findings may shed some light on
"the long-standing problem of why contact-lens wearers are more prone to eye infections than non-lens wearers," Dominguez-Bello said.
Since the introduction of soft contact lenses in the 1970s, there has been an increase in the prevalence of corneal ulcers, which are sores on the transparent covering of the eye, study co-author Dr. Jack Dodick, a professor and chair of ophthalmology at NYU Langone, said in a statement.
Comment: According to a study commissioned by the European Union, fish that have been modified to grow faster also have a higher tolerance to the toxins in their environment. Researchers expressed concerns that both these toxins and the growth hormones would end up in consumers.
See the following articles for more background information on the safety and risks associated with genetically modified salmon: