Reza Hasan Mahmud, Saleh Razwa, Jain Preeti, Rahman Ghazi Muhammad Sayedur, Bepari Asim Kumar
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, North South University, Dhaka 1229, Bangladesh.
Rep Biochem Mol Biol. 2020 Jan;8(4):419-423.
c-MAF, a transcription factor that belongs to the b-Zip Maf transcription factor family, was found to be critical for lens development in vertebrates. It is a well-known fact that the adult human ocular surface expresses c-MAF, however, its role in the limbus, cornea and conjunctiva remains unknown. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate c-MAF expression within the human ocular surface, and its potential role in pterygium pathogenesis.
We performed immunohistochemical staining to detect c-MAF expression in frozen adult human tissue sections, including the limbus, cornea and conjunctiva, and cultured cells from eye cadavers. We then compared c-MAF expression to the expression of a known protein, P63. Lastly, we performed RT-PCR, and immunohistochemistry for c-MAF expression in healthy adult human conjunctiva and pterygium.
We found differential c-MAF expression between adult human limbus, cornea and conjunctiva tissues. Further, we observed that c-MAF is downregulated in the pterygium compared to healthy conjunctiva.
Overall, our results suggest that c-MAF may play a context-specific role in maintaining limbal, corneal and conjunctival homeostasis, and may be critical for preventing pterygium development in humans.
c-MAF是一种属于b-Zip Maf转录因子家族的转录因子，已发现其对脊椎动物晶状体发育至关重要。众所周知，成年人类眼表表达c-MAF，然而，其在角膜缘、角膜和结膜中的作用仍不清楚。因此，本研究旨在调查c-MAF在人类眼表的表达及其在翼状胬肉发病机制中的潜在作用。
我们进行免疫组织化学染色，以检测c-MAF在成人冷冻组织切片（包括角膜缘、角膜和结膜）以及眼尸体培养细胞中的表达。然后，我们将c-MAF的表达与已知蛋白P63的表达进行比较。最后，我们对健康成人结膜和翼状胬肉进行了c-MAF表达的逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）和免疫组织化学检测。
我们发现成人角膜缘、角膜和结膜组织中c-MAF表达存在差异。此外，我们观察到与健康结膜相比，翼状胬肉中c-MAF表达下调。
总体而言，我们的结果表明，c-MAF可能在维持角膜缘、角膜和结膜稳态中发挥特定背景下的作用，并且可能对预防人类翼状胬肉的发展至关重要。
