Persistence of Innate Immune Pathways in Late Stage Human Bacterial and Fungal Keratitis: Results from a Comparative Transcriptome Analysis.

ABSTRACT: Microbial keratitis (MK) is a major cause of blindness worldwide. Despite adequate antimicrobial treatment, tissue damage can ensue. We compared the human corneal transcriptional profile in late stage MK to normal corneal tissue to identify pathways involved in pathogenesis. Total RNA from MK tissue and normal cadaver corneas was used to determine transcriptome profiles with Illumina HumanHT-12 v4 beadchips. We performed differential expression and network analysis of genes in bacterial keratitis (BK) and fungal keratitis (FK) compared with control (C) samples. Results were validated by RTqPCR for 45 genes in an independent series of 183 MK patients. For the microarray transcriptome analysis, 27 samples were used: 12 controls, 7 BK culture positive for Streptococcus pneumoniae (n

SUBMITTER: Chidambaram JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5435826 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature