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Abstract #24360 Published in IGR 11-3
Individual molecular response to elevated intraocular pressure in perfused postmortem human eyes
Comes N; Borras TPhysiol Genomics 2009; 38: 205-225
Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is the major risk factor for glaucoma. In the clinic, the response to elevated pressure and thus the risk for development of glaucoma differs among individuals. We took advantage of our ability to subject postmortem human eyes from the same individual to physiological and elevated pressure in a perfused outflow model and compared individual patterns of gene expression under pressure. The architecture of the trabecular meshwork, tissue responsible for the maintenance of IOP, was conserved. We performed two sets of experiments. The first set (n = 5, 10 eyes) used Affymetrix Gene-Chips, identified the 20 most pressure-altered genes in each individual, and compared their pressure response in the other four. The second set (n = 5, 10 eyes) selected 21 relevant trabecular meshwork genes and examined, by real-time TaqMan-PCR, the rank of their abundance and of their pressure differential expression in each individual. The majority of the up- and downregulated top-changers of each individual showed an individual response trend. Few genes were general responders. Individual responders included STATH, FBN2, TF, OGN, IL6, IGF1, CRYAB, and ELAM1 (marker for glaucoma). General responders included MMP1, MMP10, CXCL2, and PDPN. In addition, we found that although the relative abundance of selected genes was very similar among nonstressed individuals, the response to pressure of those same genes had a marked individual component. Our results offer the first molecular insight on the variation of the individual response to IOP observed in the clinical setting.
Dr. T. Borras, Dept. of Ophthalmology, Univ. of North Carolina School of Medicine, 6109 Neuroscience Research Bldg. CB 7041, 105 Mason Farm Rd., Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7041, USA. tborras@med.unc.edu
Classification:
3.5 Molecular biology incl. SiRNA (Part of: 3 Laboratory methods)
