Small extracellular vesicles-miR-151a-3p targeted YTHDF3 to reduce the transcriptional inhibitory activity of SP3, promote the transactivation of TGF-β1 in KCs, and then activate the SMAD2/3 pathway to enhance the stem cell-like characteristics of the incoming GC cells (Li et al., 2021). Here, SMAD2 is linked to dry eye syndrome.