Abstract

Dry eye syndrome (DES) is a complex, multifactorial, immune-associated disorder of the tear and ocular surface. DES with a high prevalence world over needs identification of potential biomarkers so as to understand not only the disease mechanism but also to identify drug targets. In this study we looked for differentially expressed proteins in tear samples of DES to arrive at characteristic biomarkers. As part of a prospective case-control study, tear specimen were collected using Schirmer strips from 129 dry eye cases and 73 age matched controls. 2D electrophoresis (2DE) and Differential gel electrophoresis (DIGE) was done to identify differentially expressed proteins. One of the differentially expressed protein in DES is lacrimal proline rich 4 protein (LPRR4). LPRR4 protein expression was quantified by enzyme immune sorbent assay (ELISA). LPRR4 was down regulated significantly in all types of dry eye cases, correlating with the disease severity as measured by clinical investigations. Further characterization of the protein is required to assess its therapeutic potential in DES.

Highlights

  • Dry eye syndrome (DES), an ocular sicca syndrome is a disorder of the tear film that results in epithelial cell damage and disruption of the normal homeostasis at the ocular surface [1]

  • The tear samples in control and DES were subjected to 2D electrophoresis, and the differentially expressed peptide spots were analyzed by densitometry analysis using PD Quest software (Figure 1). 56 peptide spots were found to be differential in DES compared to the control

  • lacrimal proline rich 4 protein (LPRR4), a lacrimal gland specific protein that was down regulated in .95% cases of DES by more than 2 fold, was chosen for further validation as not much is known on this protein

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Summary

Introduction

Dry eye syndrome (DES), an ocular sicca syndrome is a disorder of the tear film that results in epithelial cell damage and disruption of the normal homeostasis at the ocular surface [1]. The prevalence as per the recent study in US is reportedly 12% in men and 22% in female above 50 years of age. DES is found to be associated with systemic diseases especially diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease [2]. Changes in tear protein profile have been shown to be associated with various systemic and pathological conditions such as in diabetes, fungal keratitis and blepharitis [10,15,16]. Since pathological processes can be described as aberrations in the homeostasis of protein function, protein profiling using proteomic approaches will aid in detecting the differentially expressed disease specific biomarkers. Tears are being recently considered as a valuable specimen for analysis, as it is available by non-invasive procedures

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