Project description:The major focus of Dr. Argueso's research is to characterize the carbohydrate portion of the different mucins expressed by the ocular surface epithelia as well as the enzymes involved with their synthesis, and to determine whether the alteration of mucin glycosylation is associated with ocular surface disease. Highly glycosylated mucins on the ocular surface (cornea and conjunctiva) are the first line of defense of the eye against injury and infection. Changes in O-glycosylation of mucins may cause ocular surface disorders, such as dry eye. Gene expression patterns in the conjunctival epithelium of three normal subjects were analyzed. The three subjects have the same ABO-blood-group. For each donor, conjunctival cells were obtained by impression cytology. Conjunctival impression cytology was performed on each eye two times with a one-week interval. Conjunctival cells obtained from each individual were pooled and the RNA isolated. All three samples were hybridized to the custom designed CFG GLYCOv2 glycogene array.
Project description:Rabbits have been widely used for studying ocular physiology and pathology due to their relatively large eye size and similar structures with human eyes. Various rabbit ocular disease models, such as dry eye, age-related macular degeneration, and glaucoma, have been established. Despite the growing application of proteomics in vision research using rabbit ocular models, there is no spectral assay library for rabbit eye proteome publicly available. Here, we generated spectral assay libraries for rabbit eye compartments, including conjunctiva, cornea, iris, retina, sclera, vitreous humor, and tears using fractionated samples and ion mobility separation enabling deep proteome coverage. The rabbit eye spectral assay library includes 9,830 protein groups and 113,593 peptides. We present the data as a freely available community resource for proteomic studies in the vision field.
Project description:We diffrenciated organoid cultures reprecenting ocular cell, from human pluipotent stem cells (hPSCs). The organoids were grown following a protocol for self-formed ectodermal autonomous multizone (SEAM) where the different orcular cells will form in concentric circles (zone) representing surface ectoderm, cornea, RPE, neural progenitors, dorsal optic cup and periocular mesenchyme. We use this eye organoid to investigate whether the ocular surface is sucessable to infection with SARC-CoV-2. We show that a sup-group of cells get readerly infected after expositor to the virus through the media, at 1MOI for 24hours. We identify this cells population as limbal/corneal cells. By anchoring the data from the infected SEAM culture to a not-infected SEAM culture we investigated the cellular response to infection. We find that both a NFkB and a interferon response is mounted, and interestingly the Interferon pathway genes are suppressed in the infected cells compared to the nearest neighbor clusters while the NFkB pathway is more highly expressed in the infected cell compared to neighbor cells.
Project description:Genome-scale DNA methylation profiling using the Infinium DNA methylation BeadChip platform and samples from normal human eye and five ocular- related diseases DNA methylation analysis of eye samples from patient suffering ocular diseases (retinal detachment, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, uveal melanoma and retinoblastoma) using the Infinium DNA methylation BeadChip platform .
Project description:Dry eye is a common ocular inflammatory disorder characterized by tear film instability and reduced tear production. There is increasing evidence that homeostasis of the ocular surface is impacted by the intestinal microbiome. We are interested in investigating the potential role of microbially produced small molecules in mediating the interaction between the intestinal microbiota and the ocular surface. One such molecule is butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) produced by certain members of the gut microbiota through fermentation of dietary fiber. We have shown that oral administration of tributyrin, a prodrug form of butyrate, is protective of the ocular surface in mice undergoing desiccating stress. To gain insight into the mechanism, we analyzed gene expression in conjunctival tissue from mice treated with either tributyrgn or vehicle control.
Project description:Mass spectrometry-based proteomics by bottom-up approaches enables the unbiased and sensitive profiling of cellular proteomes and extracellular environments. Recent technological and bioinformatic advances permit identifying of dual biological systems in a single experiment, supporting investigation of infection from the perspective of both a host and pathogen. At the ocular surface, P. aeruginosa are commonly associated with biofilm formation and inflammation of the ocular tissues, causing damage to the eye. The interaction between P. aeruginosa and the immune system at the site of infection describes limitations in clearance of infection and enhanced pathogenesis. Here, we profile the extracellular environment (eye wash) of murine ocular surfaces infected with a clinical isolate of P. aeruginosa and detect neutrophil marker proteins, indicating neutrophil recruitment to the site of infection. In addition, we define the deepest murine corneal proteome to date and detect proteins, categories, and networks critical to the host response to infection. Moreover, we provide the first identification of bacterial-specific proteins in response to the host during bacterial biofilm formation of the eye. We validate our findings through in silico comparisons and enzymatic profiling. Overall, our work provides comprehensive profiling of the host-pathogen interface and uncovers differences between general and site-specific host responses to infection.
Project description:Genome-scale DNA methylation profiling using the Infinium DNA methylation BeadChip platform and samples from normal human eye and five ocular- related diseases
Project description:Recently we had discovered a solid cord like structure at the limbus of human eyes, termed as the Limbal Epithelial Crypt (LEC). It arises from the undersurface of the interpalisade rete ridges and extends towards the conjunctiva over the conjunctival stroma. Anatomical and immunohistochemical studies have shown it to be potentially a Stem Cell Niche. To confirm this hypothesis we conducted comparative gene expression profile of LEC with pathway and Geneontology studies in comparison with other ocular surface epithelial regions such as cornea, limbus, LEC stroma and conjunctiva. Frozen tissue blocks of corneoscleral buttons dissected from cadaver eyes were cryosectioned. These tissue sections from different ocular surface regions were laser microdissected. Extracted RNA was amplified & hybridized to 30,000k Human spotted cDNA microarray chips. Raw data obtained with Genepix Pro6 software was filtered, normalized & analysed on BASE & Jexpresspro software. Unpaired T-Test, Significance Analysis of Microarrays were performed on the data. Database for Annotation, Visualisation, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) (http://www.DAVID.niaid.nih.gov) and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) was used to determine the enriched GO terms and pathways in the differentially expressed genes. Quantitative gene expression analysis (qPCR) and immunohistochemistry was performed on the genes of interest. Statistical analysis for real time PCR was performed on SPSS16 to determine the normalised expression of gene of interest on ocular surface regions. Samples were prepared from five human ocular surface epithelial regions such as Cornea, Limbus, LEC, LEC Stroma, Conjunctiva. There were four replicates in each groups except Cornea and Conjunctiva with 3 each. The Standard Probe (SP) was prepared from mixing equal amount of Corneal and conjunctival epithelial RNA followed by ethanol precipitation. Samples were labelled with Cy5 dye and Standard Probe with Cy3 Dye. These were mixed in equal amount to prepare hybrid probes which were then hybridised to microarray slide.