Ocular proteomic and transcriptomic changes with aging in a rabbit model of lensectomy with intraocular lens...

Children that undergo intraocular surgery have an exaggerated postoperative response compared to adults that can result in significant postoperative challenges and reduced post-operative visual acuity. Rabbits were used as an animal model for investigating aging differences, treatment options, and surgical techniques for anterior chamber surgical interventions due to similarities in anterior chamber size and decreasing postoperative response with age. In our study, juvenile and adult rabbits underwent lensectomy with intraocular lens (IOL) insertion to determine how ocular RNA transcripts and proteins change with age. Rabbits underwent lensectomy with IOL insertion, and aqueous humor (AH) was collected immediately prior to surgery and at the peak of the postoperative response on post-operative day 3. Proteins related to coagulation and inflammation were assessed using targeted mass spectrometry. In addition, the cornea and iris/ciliary body tissues were dissected, and transcripts analyzed using RNA sequencing. While clinically, juvenile rabbits have greater fibrin formation following intraocular surgery compared to older rabbits, this change does not appear to be related to relative abundance levels of coagulation and inflammatory proteins in the AH. Gene transcript levels from a variety of immune response and inflammatory pathways reflected significant increases when comparing operated to unoperated ocular tissues, indicating the significant impact that surgery has on each ocular structure. This work further advances our understanding of how the rabbit eye proteomic and transcriptomic changes in response to surgery with aging, as we seek to ultimately identify the mechanisms for the exaggerated postoperative responses after pediatric intraocular surgery.