State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510060, P.R. China.
Int J Mol Med. 2014 May;33(5):1195-200. doi: 10.3892/ijmm.2014.1688. Epub 2014 Mar 7.
The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells plays a key role in proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), both of which lead to severe loss of vision. Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) have been found to be involved in the regulation of various physiological and pathological processes, such as embryogenesis, organ development, oncogenesis and angiogenesis. However, the expression profile and function of miRNAs in the EMT of RPE cells remain to be clarified. In this study, human miRNA expression profiles were identified using microarrays and 304 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in TGFβ2-induced EMT in human RPE cells. Of these differentially expressed miRNAs, 185 miRNAs were downregulated and 119 miRNAs were upregulated at least 2-fold in TGFβ2 treatment samples. Similar alterations of miRNA expression were validated for 35 representative miRNAs by quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis. Therefore, these results suggested that differentially expressed miRNAs play potential roles in TGFβ2-induced EMT in RPE cells. This is an essential step in the identification of miRNAs associated with PVR and PDR progression, and in the identification of potential therapeutic targets for these diseases.
视网膜色素上皮 (RPE) 细胞的上皮-间充质转化 (EMT) 在增生性玻璃体视网膜病变 (PVR) 和增生性糖尿病视网膜病变 (PDR) 中起着关键作用，这两种疾病都会导致严重的视力丧失。最近，人们发现 microRNAs (miRNAs) 参与了多种生理和病理过程的调节，如胚胎发生、器官发育、肿瘤发生和血管生成。然而，miRNAs 在 RPE 细胞 EMT 中的表达谱和功能仍有待阐明。在这项研究中，我们使用微阵列鉴定了人类 miRNA 的表达谱，发现 304 个 miRNA 在 TGFβ2 诱导的人 RPE 细胞 EMT 中存在差异表达。在 TGFβ2 处理样本中，这些差异表达的 miRNA 中有 185 个下调，119 个至少上调 2 倍。通过定量聚合酶链反应分析，对 35 个代表性 miRNA 的相似 miRNA 表达变化进行了验证。因此，这些结果表明差异表达的 miRNA 在 TGFβ2 诱导的 RPE 细胞 EMT 中发挥潜在作用。这是鉴定与 PVR 和 PDR 进展相关的 miRNAs 以及鉴定这些疾病潜在治疗靶点的重要步骤。
