Abstract
Purpose :
Previous studies showed strong involvement of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells in the pathogenesis of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). On the other hand, Caveolin-1, principal protein component of caveolae, has been reported to play an important role in EMT. In this study, we investigated the involvement of Caveolin-1 in EMT and PVR pathogenesis, using tissue samples from PVR eyes, mice with surgically induced PVR and different cell line of RPE.
Methods :
Fibro-vascular membrans excised from 3 eyes with PVR were immunostained with anti-Caveolin-1 antibody. C57BL6J and Caveolin-1 knock out (Cav-1-/-) mice were obtained, and PVR was induced surgically. The retina/RPE lysates obtained from PVR eyes were analyzed with Western Blot (WB). Primary human RPE (hRPE) cells and ARPE-19 cells transfected with siRNA_CAV-1, and primary mouse RPE cells collected from C57BL6J and Cav-1-/- mice were analyzed by WB with anti-αSMA antibody and scratch assay.
Results :
All tissue samples from PVR eyes were specifically stained with Caveolin-1. Retina/RPE samples from PVR eyes with Cav-1-/- mice strongly expressed αSMA compared to those with C57BL6J mice. hRPE with siRNA_ CAV-1 and primary mouse RPE cells from Cav-1-/- mice showed larger number of migrating cells in the scratch assay.
Conclusions :
Caveolin-1 is expressed in the PVR tissue and prevents PVR by negatively regulating EMT in RPE cells.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.