Expression of visual system homeobox 1 in human keratoconus
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Xiao-Dong Wang. Department of Ophthalmology, Xi’an No.1 Hospital, Xi’an 710002, Shaanxi Province, China. xiaodong_wng@sina.com.

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Supported by Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (No. 2017JM8040); Xi’an Science and Technology Project [No.2017116SF/YX010(7)].

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    Abstract:

    AIM: To investigate the expression of visual system homeobox 1 (VSX1) and myofibroblast marker alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in keratoconus (KC). METHODS: Thirty corneal tissue were collected from KC patients after corneal transplantation and 15 normal donor corneas were obtained. All corneal tissues divided into 4 parts for different detections. Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the ultrastructure of the specimens. VSX1 and α-SMA localization in cornea tissues was detected using immunofluorescence histochemistry. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and Western blot were performed to analyze the expression level of VSX1 and α-SMA. RESULTS: Compared to normal cornea tissue, the collagen fibers in KC stroma were distortional and attenuated and keratocytes were abnormally changed. VSX1 and α-SMA located in the corneal stroma. The mRNA and protein expression level of VSX1 in KC were about 3 times as high as that of normal tissue (P<0.001). α-SMA was hardly expressed in the normal corneas, however, its expression in the KC was about 1.5 times higher than that of the normal corneas (P<0.0001). CONCLUSION: Compared with normal corneal the expression of VSX1 and α-SMA in KC both increased. VSX1 is related to the activation of keratocytes and involved in the pathogenesis of keratoconus.

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Ya-Ni Wang, Xian-Ning Liu, Xiao-Dong Wang, et al. Expression of visual system homeobox 1 in human keratoconus. Int J Ophthalmol, 2019,12(2):201-206

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Publication History
  • Received:September 04,2018
  • Revised:October 29,2018
  • Adopted:
  • Online: January 03,2019
  • Published: