{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,29]],"date-time":"2026-08-29T00:32:04Z","timestamp":1787963524930,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":20,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,4]],"date-time":"2023-09-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1693785600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Med."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>To evaluate the distribution of various Meibomian gland morphologies across different age groups in healthy individuals.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>The infrared meibographic morphologies of the Meibomian glands from the upper and lower eyelids of 236 healthy individuals (472 eyes; mean age 38.4 \u00b1 17.5 years; 80 female participants: 156 male participants) were evaluated for their prevalence and differences across six decades of life, from 10 to 80 years. A linear mixed-effects modeling test was performed for statistical analysis.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Of 14,452 glands, 8,830 (61%) glands were located in the upper eyelid. No significant differences in frequency were noted between different age groups for distorted, tortuous, hooked, overlapping, abnormal gap, fluffy areas, dropout (except for 51\u201360 vs. 10\u201320 years, <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.023), and thick and thin morphologies. Short glands were significantly more common in individuals aged over 30 years (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.015), whereas moderately short and severely short glands were more common in the upper eyelids of individuals older than 50 years compared to those aged 10\u201320 years (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.035). The frequency of distorted, hooked, tortuous, overlapping, and tadpole-shaped Meibomian glands was significantly higher in the upper eyelids than in the lower eyelids for all age groups. Dropout glands were more common in the lower eyelids of individuals younger than 50 years, but no difference was observed in the upper and lower eyelids of individuals over 50 years. Dropout (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.006) and severely short glands (0.026) of the lower eyelid were associated with low non-invasive tear break-up time (NIBUT) values.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Various morphologic characteristics of the Meibomian glands that are considered abnormal can be present in healthy individuals, and only moderate to severely short glands display an increase in abnormal morphologic characteristics of the Meibomian glands with age.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmed.2023.1195568","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,4]],"date-time":"2023-09-04T07:55:55Z","timestamp":1693814155000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":18,"title":["Morphologic variants of Meibomian glands: age-wise distribution and differences between upper and lower eyelids"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Saumya","family":"Srivastav","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohammed","family":"Hasnat Ali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sayan","family":"Basu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Swati","family":"Singh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"911","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ophtha.2007.06.031","article-title":"Noncontact infrared meibography to document age-related changes of the meibomian glands in a normal population","volume":"115","author":"Arita","year":"2008","journal-title":"Ophthalmology."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"301","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jtos.2018.03.006","article-title":"The significance of meibomian gland changes in asymptomatic children","volume":"16","author":"Zhao","year":"2018","journal-title":"Ocul Surf."},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"DES48","DOI":"10.1167\/iovs.17-23631","article-title":"Meibography: a Japanese perspective","volume":"59","author":"Arita","year":"2018","journal-title":"Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"47","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jtos.2012.09.005","article-title":"Morphological evaluation of meibomian glands using noncontact infrared meibography","volume":"11","author":"Ban","year":"2013","journal-title":"Ocul Surf."},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"491","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jtos.2019.04.003","article-title":"Dry Eye Assessment and Management (DREAM) Study Research Group. 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