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International audience; Background: Worldwide, degenerative eye diseases (age-related maculopathy (ARM), cataract, glaucoma) are the main causes of visual impairment and blindness, which contribute to disability in the elderly. Mainly three types of nutritional factors are investigated for their potential protection against eye ageing: antioxidants; lutein and zeaxanthin (carotenoids which accumulate specifically in the eye); omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Few epidemiological studies have been conducted in this field, particularly in Europe. Objective: The Alienor (Antioxydants, Lipides Essentiels, Nutrition et maladies OculaiRes) Study aims at assessing the associations of eye diseases with nutritional factors, determined from plasma measurements and estimation of dietary intakes. Design, setting and participants: Subjects were recruited in Bordeaux (France) from the ongoing population-based 3C study. In 2006-2008, 963 subjects from the 3C Study, aged 73 years or more, had an eye examination and will have follow-up eye examinations every 2 years. Measurements: Vascular, genetic and nutritional factors were assessed at baseline (1999-2001) and follow-up examinations of the 3C Study. Eye diseases were classified according to international classifications. Results: Nutritional status and vascular disease and risk factors were similar between participants and non participants, except for a slight difference in plasma triglycerides and HDL-cholesterol. As expected, the prevalence of eye diseases was high: early and late ARM (28.4 % and 5.6 %, respectively), open-angle glaucoma and treated ocular hypertension (4.8 % and 10.0 %, respectively), cataract extraction (45.2 %), retinopathy (8.4 %), retinal vein occlusion (1.1 %), epiretinal membrane (3.9 %), current use of artificial tears (17.3 %). Conclusions: This study confirms the high prevalence of eye diseases in the elderly. Its main strength is the combination of nutritional, vascular and genetic information, collected over a 7 year period of time before the first eye examination. It may help design future interventional studies, which might be common with other age-related disorders, because of common nutritional factors.

As bacterial adhesion to contact lenses may contribute to the pathogenesis of keratitis, the aim of our study was to investigate in vitro adhesion of clinically relevant bacteria to conventional hydrogel (standard HEMA) and silicone-hydrogel contact lenses using a bioluminescent ATP assay.Four types of unworn contact lenses (Etafilcon A, Galyfilcon A, Balafilcon A, Lotrafilcon B) were incubated with Staphylococcus epidermidis (two different strains) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa suspended in phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Lenses were placed with the posterior surface facing up and were incubated in the bacterial suspension for 4 hours at 37 degrees C. Bacterial binding was then measured and studied by bioluminescent ATP assay. Six replicate experiments were performed for each lens and strain.Adhesion of all species of bacteria to standard HEMA contact lenses (Etafilcon A) was found to be significantly lower than that of three types of silicone-hydrogel contact lenses, whereas Lotrafilcon B material showed the highest level of bacterial binding. Differences between species in the overall level of adhesion to the different types of contact lenses were observed. Adhesion of P. aeruginosa was typically at least 20 times greater than that observed with both S. epidermidis strains.Conventional hydrogel contact lenses exhibit significantly lower bacterial adhesion in vitro than silicone-hydrogel ones. This could be due to the greater hydrophobicity but also to the higher oxygen transmissibility of silicone-hydrogel lenses.