Purpose Age-related cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the world today. The association between DNA damage to the lens epithelium and the development of lens opacities has been reported in many studies. The objective of this study was to investigate the changes of DNA repair gene expression in lens capsule tissue specimes from individuals with age-ralated cataract.
Methods Lens capsules were colleted at the time of cataract surgery.The control lens epitheliamsamples were obtained during vitrectomy performed for epiretinal membrane.Total RNA was isolated and reverse-transcribed.Microarray analysis was used to compare gene expression between the groups.The gene expression of mRNA in these key base excision repair(BER)enzymes were studied with real time-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) .
Results Microarray analysis demonstrated that genes involved in BER were specifically altered.Quantitative RT-PCR confirmed that BER genes were downregulated (>1.5fold).
Conclusions The present study has offered a glimpse of global DNA repair-related gene expression changes in lens epithelium of cataract.The decreased expression of BER genes may contribute to age-related cataract pathogenesis. |
