[Differential expression of small leucine-rich proteoglycans gene in Lumican transgenic mouse cornea]

Objective: To investigate the differential expression of small leucine-rich proteoglycans at mRNA level in Lumican transgenic mouse cornea with Real-time Quantitative PCR Detecting System. Methods: Experimental research. Ten Lumican transgenic mice (5 male and 5 female) were chosen as experimental group and 10 wild mice (5 male and 5 female) were chosen as control group. All the mice were killed and enucleated both eyes at eight weeks of age. Gene expression levels of Lumican, Decorin, Biglycan, Keratocan, Fibromodulin in the excised corneas were analyzed by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-Q-PCR) using Real-time Quantitative PCR Detecting System. Differential expression within each group were analysed by fold changes and independent t-test. Results: There were statistic different expression level of Lumican, Decorin, Biglycan and Keratocan mRNA between experimental and control group. The expression level of Lumican RNA was found to be 1.497-fold increased relative to the control (t=4.34, P<0.05) , while Decorin, Biglycan, Keratocan were 0.648-fold (t=-9.98, P<0.05) , 0.522-fold (t=-7.74,P<0.05), 0.323-fold (t=-95.94, P<0.05)decreased in transgenic mice. Fibromodulin mRNA up regulated 1.193-fold in transgenic mice without statistic difference (t=1.66, P>0.05). Conclusions: Lumican gene mutation(cDNA 569T>C) results in abnormal SLRP expression in transgenic mouse cornea at mRNA level, which may indicate that this mutation changes the structure of Lumican and impairs the function of regulating SLRP expression. Also, Lumican gene mutation leads to amio acid exchanging(L199P), which may hinder Lumican from binding to collagens and result in abnormal expression of SLRP at mRNA level. (Chin J Ophthalmol, 2018, 54:911-917).