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Editors Selection IGR 13-2
IOP and Trabecular Meshwork: RNA expression in human TM
Comment by Rudolf Fuchshofer on:
46052 Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) in normal human trabecular meshwork, Liu Y; Munro D; Layfield D et al., Molecular Vision, 2011; 17: 885-893
Despite progress to identify key molecules leading to the pathogenesis of glaucoma, there are still many open questions. Liu et al. (560) describe the properties of a relatively new technique to identify further candidates in POAG patients. They used the SAGE (Serial analysis of gene expression) technique to clarify the RNA expression pattern in human trabecular meshwork of three different donors. The authors could identify a gene expression profile of the human trabecular meshwork, which was common to all three donors. The reliability of the SAGE technique was proven by affirming the expression of trabecular meshwork relevant genes like myocilin, WDR36, different matrix metalloproteinases and different collagens. In their conclusion the authors figure out that this technique could help to identify new glaucoma genes or could lead to a better understanding of the normal trabecular meshwork.
The SAGE techniques could be a powerful tool to identify specific trabecular meshwork genes, which are still missing. Myocilin is till now the best candidate, but Myocilin is not exclusively expressed in the trabecular meshwork. In this point the SAGE technique together with the data from multiple micro-array analysis should help to resolve this issue. The problem of all this studies is that the number of samples is always too low to receive enough hits to identify good candidates. Further this kind of study would need a more powerful bio-informatic analysis to resolve possible pathways, and this is missing. A long list of expression profiles was identified during the last decade, but our understanding till now very is still poor. Grouping of those different studies could really provide a push on the glaucoma field. In combination with the genome wide data and the protein expression profiles, this would be helpful to understand the molecular mechanisms within the trabecular meshwork. This would build a basic concept of the trabecular meshwork, which than could hint to changes within those mechanisms in glaucomatous patients.
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