Cui Ge, Di Yu, Yang Shan, Chen Youxin, Li Ying, Chen Di
Department of Ophthalmology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Key Laboratory of Ocular Fundus Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
Front Med (Lausanne). 2024 Aug 16;11:1406748. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1406748. eCollection 2024.
Nowadays, myopia has become a highly prevalent disease globally, especially in East Asia. Epidemiological studies have found that there may be sex differences in the occurrence and progression of myopia, with females having a higher incidence of myopia and higher risk of myopia progression. The purpose of this study was to explore the sex differences in myopic cornea using corneal stroma removed by small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) surgery.
The corneal stroma of females with high myopia (FH) and males with high myopia (MH) were subjected to proteomic assays. Proteomic-related data were statistically analyzed using software such as MaxQuan, KAAS, Proteome Discovery, etc. The total number of proteins in the cornea and the proteins specifically expressed in the two groups were counted, and the differentially expressed proteins in the two groups were identified by expression fold change >2 and -value <0.05, and volcano plots were constructed, and functional enrichment analysis, subcellular organelle analysis, and molecular interaction were implemented.
Ten samples from each group were analyzed. Twenty-seven proteins were down-regulated and 27 proteins were up-regulated in the FH group, of which 23 proteins were up-regulated in the range of 2-10-fold and 4 proteins were up-regulated in the range of >10-fold. Comparative proteomic analysis of the cornea of male and female patients with high myopia revealed that the expression of corneal extracellular matrix and collagen I, III, V, and VIII-associated proteins were increased in the cornea of female patients, and the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)/Smad pathway was an important pathway obtained by functional analysis.
Comparative proteomic analysis of cornea from male and female patients with high myopia revealed increased expression of proteins related to extracellular matrix and collagen I, III, V, and VIII in female patients, and the TGF-β/Smad pathway was an important pathway obtained from the functional analysis, suggesting that extracellular matrix remodeling and collagen fiber synthesis may be more active in the cornea of female patients.
如今，近视已成为全球范围内高度流行的疾病，尤其是在东亚地区。流行病学研究发现，近视的发生和发展可能存在性别差异，女性近视发病率更高，近视进展风险也更高。本研究旨在利用小切口基质透镜切除术（SMILE）手术切除的角膜基质，探讨近视眼角膜的性别差异。
对高度近视女性（FH）和高度近视男性（MH）的角膜基质进行蛋白质组学分析。使用MaxQuan、KAAS、Proteome Discovery等软件对蛋白质组学相关数据进行统计分析。统计角膜中的蛋白质总数以及两组中特异性表达的蛋白质，通过表达倍数变化>2且P值<0.05来鉴定两组中的差异表达蛋白质，并构建火山图，进行功能富集分析、亚细胞器分析和分子相互作用分析。
每组分析10个样本。FH组中有27种蛋白质下调，27种蛋白质上调，其中23种蛋白质上调幅度在2至10倍之间，4种蛋白质上调幅度>10倍。对高度近视男性和女性患者的角膜进行比较蛋白质组学分析发现，女性患者角膜中细胞外基质以及与I、III、V和VIII型胶原蛋白相关的蛋白质表达增加，转化生长因子-β（TGF-β）/Smad信号通路是功能分析获得的重要信号通路。
对高度近视男性和女性患者的角膜进行比较蛋白质组学分析发现，女性患者中与细胞外基质以及I、III、V和VIII型胶原蛋白相关的蛋白质表达增加，TGF-β/Smad信号通路是功能分析获得的重要信号通路，提示女性患者角膜中的细胞外基质重塑和胶原纤维合成可能更活跃。
