靶向表皮生长因子受体的小干扰RNA可有效预防白内障手术后的后囊膜混浊。

PURPOSE

We investigated the effect of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) siRNA on human lens epithelium (HLE) cells and the development of posterior capsular opacity (PCO).

METHODS

We designed EGFR siRNA and used it to knockdown the expression of EGFR in HLE cells. Cell proliferation was examined by 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), cell growth curve assay and cell cycle analysis. Next, we selected an adaptable concentration of recombinant epidermal growth factor (EGF) for stimulating the growth of HLE cells to further test the suppressive effect of siRNA. At last, we established the model of PCO in rats to further investigate whether knocking down EGFR would prevent the progression of PCO in vivo.

RESULTS

The cell proliferation of EGFR siRNA group was apparently inhibited no matter in short or long term and cell cycle was arrested in G(1) phase. Over expression EGF cannot rescue the inhibition of EGFR siRNA on HLE cells and the proliferation activity in HLE cells greatly decreased when EGF-EGFR signal pathway blockaded. In vivo experiments, the extent of PCO of EGFR siRNA group is much lower than the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results demonstrate that EGFR siRNA can effectively inhibit the progression of PCO. Thus, siRNA targeting EGFR may provide a totally new way for preventing PCO or even cataract.

目的

我们研究了表皮生长因子受体（EGFR）小干扰RNA（siRNA）对人晶状体上皮（HLE）细胞及后囊膜混浊（PCO）发展的影响。

方法

我们设计了EGFR siRNA，并用于敲低HLE细胞中EGFR的表达。通过3-(4,5-二甲基噻唑-2-基)-2,5-二苯基四氮唑溴盐（MTT）、细胞生长曲线分析和细胞周期分析来检测细胞增殖。接下来，我们选择合适浓度的重组表皮生长因子（EGF）来刺激HLE细胞生长，以进一步测试siRNA的抑制作用。最后，我们建立大鼠PCO模型，以进一步研究敲低EGFR是否能在体内阻止PCO的进展。