Purpose:
To describe a spontaneous corneal keratopathy occurred in miceand the gene expression profiling in the diseased corneas.
Methods:
Slit lamp and histology was used to confirm the status of thecorneas. Gene expression microarray methodology was employedto screen for changed genes and 2D gel electrophoresis in combinationwith mass spectrometry (MS) for overexpressed proteins in thediseased corneas.
Results:
The majority of the lesions were similar in appearance to theCentralCloudy Corneal Dystrophy or Anterior Mosaic Crocodile Chagrinin human corneal tissue (Figure 1). Histological studies revealedthat the lesions resulted in disruption of epithelium, basementmembrane, and infiltration or neovascularization of anteriorstroma (Figure1, 2). Microarry prolifling revealed 46 gene probesthat are upregulated (over two folds) in the diseased corneas,13 of which are for various crystallins. 2D gels revealed 14increased proteins and 8 decreased proteins in diseased corneas.All 6 overexpressed proteins analyzed with MS turnt to be crystallins.
Conclusions:
Crystallins are involved in the observed corneal degenerationand might also participate in pathogenesis of diseases likecorneal dystrophies in human.
Keywords: cornea: basic science • crystallins • degenerations/dystrophies