Clinical characteristics of children with cataracts correlated with growth behavior of pLEC in vitro. mRNA expression of epithelial (αB-crystallin, connexin-43) and mesenchymal (αV-integrin, α-smooth muscle actin, collagen-Iα2, fibronectin-1) markers was quantified in pLEC and in cell line HLE-B3 in the presence and absence of TGFβ-2.
Downregulation of fibronectin, Slug, and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and upregulation of E-cadherin expression were induced in human PCO-attached LECs transfected with miR-181a mimics and miR-181a-overexpressing LECs obtained from patients with anterior polar cataracts.
The downregulated expression of ADAM9 may serve as a marker for anterior polar cataracts in addition to previously known proteins, fibronectin, alpha-SMA, and beta ig-h3.
The levels of fibronectin, type I collagen, and alpha-smooth muscle actin (SMA) mRNAs were higher in LECs from patients with anterior polar cataracts than in those from patients with nuclear cataracts.