Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Harbin Medical University, 23 Youzheng Street, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang Province, People's Republic of China.
Department of Dermatology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
Biol Res. 2019 Apr 16;52(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s40659-019-0229-4.
Conjunctival filtering bleb scar formation is the main reason for the failure of glaucoma filtration surgery. Cytoglobin (Cygb) has been reported to play an important role in extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling, fibrosis and tissue damage repairing. This study aimed to investigate the role of Cygb in anti-scarring during excessive conjunctival wound healing after glaucoma filtration surgery.
Cygb was overexpressed in human tenon fibroblasts (hTFs) by transfecting hTFs with lentiviral particles encoding pLenti6.2-FLAG-Cygb. Changes in the mRNA and protein levels of fibronectin, collagen I, collagen III, TGF-β1, and HIF1α were determined by RT-PCR and western blotting respectively.
After Cygb overexpression, hTFs displayed no significant changes in visual appearance and cell counts compared to controls. Whereas, Cygb overexpression significantly decreased the mRNA and protein expression levels of collagen I, collagen III and fibronectin compared with control (p < 0.01). There was also a statistically significant decrease in the mRNA and protein levels of TGF-β1 and HIF-1α in hTFs with overexpressed Cygb compared with control group (p < 0.05).
Our study provided evidence that overexpression of Cygb decreased the expression levels of fibronectin, collagen I, collagen III, TGF-β1 and HIF-1α in hTFs. Therefore, therapies targeting Cygb expression in hTFs may pave a new way for clinicians to solve the problem of post-glaucoma surgery scarring.
结膜滤过泡瘢痕形成是青光眼滤过手术失败的主要原因。细胞血红蛋白（Cygb）在细胞外基质（ECM）重塑、纤维化和组织损伤修复中发挥重要作用。本研究旨在探讨 Cygb 在青光眼滤过术后过度结膜伤口愈合过程中的抗瘢痕作用。
通过慢病毒颗粒转染人眼Tenon 纤维细胞（hTFs），使 Cygb 在 hTFs 中过表达。通过 RT-PCR 和 Western blot 分别检测纤连蛋白、胶原 I、胶原 III、TGF-β1 和 HIF1α 的 mRNA 和蛋白水平变化。
与对照组相比，Cygb 过表达后 hTFs 的外观和细胞计数无明显变化。然而，与对照组相比，Cygb 过表达显著降低了胶原 I、胶原 III 和纤连蛋白的 mRNA 和蛋白表达水平（p<0.01）。过表达 Cygb 的 hTFs 中 TGF-β1 和 HIF-1α 的 mRNA 和蛋白水平也显著降低（p<0.05）。
本研究提供的证据表明，Cygb 的过表达降低了 hTFs 中纤连蛋白、胶原 I、胶原 III、TGF-β1 和 HIF-1α 的表达水平。因此，针对 hTFs 中 Cygb 表达的治疗方法可能为临床医生解决青光眼术后瘢痕问题开辟新途径。
