Abstract:
Background Ocular trauma is an important cause of visual loss. Traumatic proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is an important cause of poor prognosis of ocular injury, and its mechanism remains unclear.
Objective To find the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in the process of injury repair and analyze the changes of signal pathways at different stages by sequencing the transcriptome of the PVR proliferative membrane (epiretinal membrane and subretinal membrane) in different periods after open globe injuries.
Methods From January to December in 2015, 4 male patients with age ranging from 12 to 45 years admitted to the Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University Third Hospital were included in this study. Their RNA expression of retinal proliferative membrane after open globe injury was detected by Bulk RNA seq technology. The expression of differential genes in early and late proliferative membrane transcriptome was analyzed.
Results Through KEGG analysis, we found that ECM receptor interaction, cytokine receptor interaction, cell adhesion molecules, protein digestion and absorption pathways in late proliferative membrane were activated, and the corresponding up-regulated genes were ITGA8, TNFRSF4, CLDN5, and COL3A1.
Conclusion Integrins β8 subunit may play an important role in the transdifferentiation of RPE cells in the PVR proliferative membrane. In addition, ATP1A2, SLC8A3 and SLC7A15P genes are of great significance in the repair of the blood-ocular barrier.