Integrated Analysis of lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA ceRNA Network in Mixed Dry Eye Disease

In order to investigate the relationship between inflammation and lncRNA in mixed dry eye disease (DED), this study establishes competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network in mixed DED. Microarray analysis of cornea from mixed DED mice is performed to screen for differences in lncRNA and target genes, and miRNA bioinformatics were predicted based on the ceRNA hypothesis. The ceRNA network, which consists of 96 relationship pairs, is constructed using the top 10 upregulated lncRNAs and all upregulated mRNAs and two pairs of lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA pairs (NONMMUT047964.2-miR-671-5p-Egr-1andNONMMUT054540.2-miR-1934-5p-Grm2) are selected for RT-qRCR verification in mouse corneal epithelial cells under high osmotic pressure and the samples for microarray. Meanwhile, mouse corneal epithelial cell lines (MCECs), transfected siRNA of NONMMUT047964.2 under high osmotic pressure, shows a decrease in apoptosis rate and a decrease in expression of IL-1β and IL-6. The experimental results show that the NONMMUT047964.2-miR-671-5p-Egr-1 axis may regulate the inflammation and promote the apoptosis of corneal epithelial cells under hypertonic condition.