Bioinformatic Analysis of the Value of Mitophagy and Immune Responses in Corneal Endothelial Dysfunction

This study was conducted to elucidate the mitophagy-related differentially expressed genes (MRDEGs) in corneal endothelial dysfunction (CED) and to identify key hub genes that could provide insights into the disease pathogenesis and potential targeted therapies. To achieve this, CED models were established in female SD rats, and RNA sequencing of coronal endothelium samples was conducted to generate a self-testing dataset. Comprehensive bioinformatics analyses were executed, which included the identification of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), GO and KEGG enrichment analyses, GSEA, and GSVA. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to identify highly interconnected hub genes, followed by the construction of ROC curves to validate MRDEGs within the dataset, alongside qRT-PCR assays. Our findings revealed a total of 18,511 DEGs, among which 20 genes were characterized as MRDEGs. Enrichment analyses indicated significant associations with monocyte differentiation and lymphocyte proliferation. Importantly, eight hub genes emerged from the PPI network as promising therapeutic targets. In conclusion, this study underscores the important role of MRDEGs and immune infiltration in CED, laying the groundwork for future investigations into targeted therapies for this disease.