RESUMO
(1) Background: Artemia salina is a brine shrimp containing high concentrations of dinucleotides, molecules with properties for dry eye treatment. For this reason, the purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of the artificial tears based on an extract of Artemia salina in a rabbit dry eye model. (2) Methods: A prospective and randomized study was carried out. Twenty rabbits were divided into 4 groups (n = 5, each group): healthy rabbits, dry eye rabbits, dry eye rabbits treated with hypromellose (HPMC), and dry eye rabbits treated with Artemia salina. Dry eye was induced by the topical instillation of 0.2% benzalkonium chloride. The measurements were performed before and after the treatment for 5 consecutive days. (3) Results: The topical instillation of artificial tears containing Artemia salina showed beneficial effects on tear secretion, tear break-up time, corneal staining, the density of Goblet cells, heigh of mucin cloud secreted by these cells, and mRNA levels of IL-1ß and MMP9 in conjunctival cells. Compared with the HPMC, there was a statistically significant improvement (p < 0.05) with the Artemia salina in all the variables under study, except for the conjunctival hyperemia, density of Goblet cells, and mRNA levels of IL-6. (4) Conclusions: The potential of artificial tears based on Artemia salina as a secretagogue agent for dry eye treatment was confirmed, opening the door for future clinical trials and studies to extrapolate the findings for dry eye patients.