Different alpha crystallin expression in human age-related and congenital cataract lens epithelium

BMC Ophthalmology

Research Article

Minfei Guo¹  Yuting Li²  Jing Yang²  Jianjun Gu²  Sheng Zhou³ 

[1] Department of Ophthalmology, Huichang County People’s Hospital, Jiangxi, China;State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, 54S Xianlie, 510060, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China;State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, 54S Xianlie, 510060, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China;Department of ophthalmology, The First People’s Hospital of Foshan, Guangdong Province, China;

关键词: Alpha-crystallin;    Age-related cataract;    Congenital cataract;    Lens epithelium;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12886-016-0241-1

 received in 2015-07-27, accepted in 2016-05-19,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to investigate the different expressions of αA-crystallin and αB-crystallin in human lens epithelium of age-related and congenital cataracts.MethodsThe central part of the human anterior lens capsule approximately 5 mm in diameter together with the adhering epithelial cells, were harvested and processed within 6 hours after cataract surgery from age-related and congenital cataract patients or from normal eyes of fresh cadavers. The mRNA and soluble protein levels of αA-crystallin and αB-crystallin in the human lens epithelium were detected by real-time PCR and western blots, respectively.ResultsThe mRNA and soluble protein expressions of αA-crystallin and αB-crystallin in the lens epithelium were both reduced in age-related and congenital cataract groups when compared with the normal control group. However, the degree of α-crystallin loss in the lens epithelium was highly correlated with different cataract types. The α-crystallin expression of the lens epithelium was greatly reduced in the congenital cataract group but only moderately decreased in the age-related cataract group. The reduction of αA-crystallin soluble protein levels in the congenital cataract group was approximately 2.4 fold decrease compared with that of the age-related cataract group, while an mRNA fold change of 1.67 decrease was observed for the age-related cataract group. Similarly, the reduction of soluble protein levels of αB-crystallin in the congenital cataract group was approximately a 1.57 fold change compared with that of the age-related cataract group. A 1.75 fold change for mRNA levels compared with that of the age-related cataract group was observed.ConclusionsThe results suggest that the differential loss of α-crystallin in the human lens epithelium could be associated with the different mechanisms of cataractogenesis in age-related versus congenital cataracts, subsequently resulting in different clinical presentations.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Yang et al. 2016