Pathological molecular mechanism of symptomatic late-onset Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy by bioinformatic analysis

PLoS One. 2018 May 22;13(5):e0197750. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197750. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD) is a degenerative disease characterized by corneal endothelial decompensation. FECD causes corneal stromal and epithelial edema and progressively develops into bullous keratopathy, which can eventually lead to blindness. However, the exact pathogenesis is unknown. In this study, we performed an in-depth bioinformatic analysis of the dataset GSE74123 to determine the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of symptomatic late-onset FECD compared with a normal control. Gene ontology (GO) terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways analysis were used to analyze the pathological molecular mechanism of FECD. We found that cell senescence, reactive oxygen species (ROS), the extracellular matrix (ECM), epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and immune response-related genes play an important role in the pathological development of symptomatic late-onset FECD. In addition, we revealed that down-regulated IL-6, enhanced NF-κB activity and a suite of orchestrated chemokine responses induce fibrocyte differentiation from monocyte to dendritic cell maturation. PI3K plays a key role in the molecular mechanism of symptomatic late-onset FECD. This study enhances our understanding of the molecular mechanism of FECD pathogenesis and will improve the diagnostics and therapy of FECD patients in the future.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Databases, Genetic
  • Female
  • Fuchs' Endothelial Dystrophy / genetics*
  • Gene Expression Profiling / methods*
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Gene Regulatory Networks*
  • Humans
  • Interleukin-6 / genetics
  • Male
  • Molecular Sequence Annotation
  • NF-kappa B / genetics
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / genetics

Substances

  • IL6 protein, human
  • Interleukin-6
  • NF-kappa B
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases

Supplementary concepts

  • Corneal dystrophy, Fuchs' endothelial, 2

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 81371689) and Special Funds for Major Science and Technology Projects of Guangdong Province (2015B010125007).