Metallomic Profiling of the Human Eye and Its Relevance to Ophthalmic Diseases

Levels of micro- and macroelements in the human organism change dynamically and undoubtedly remain critical for human health. Currently, much research is focused on searching for the concentrations of various metals (including toxic ones) in the tissues obtained from patients suffering from various diseases including ophthalmic diseases. However, the knowledge in this matter is still scarce and highly limited. Previous studies related to the changes in the levels of micro- and macroelements within the morphological elements of the eye and visual tract were performed on animal models in most cases, and only for the chosen elements. In addition, the majority of the studies performed on human samples were mostly focused only on the group of patients with chosen ophthalmic diseases such as glaucoma or cataracts. Moreover, usually, the results of the studies are contradictory, and some hypotheses are still unexplained. The understanding of the physiology and pathophysiology of the processes that lead to the changes in the distribution of the levels of micro- and macroelements that are crucial in the etiology of ophthalmic diseases might provide more effective prevention and better therapeutic strategies, or even improvements in the treatment of chosen ophthalmic diseases. In this paper, we summarized the current knowledge regarding the metallomic analysis of the human organ of vision and its relationship with chosen ophthalmic diseases.