Gene expression profile of fibrovascular membranes from patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

Background/aims: The purpose of this study was to generate a profile of genes expressed in preretinal fibrovascular membranes (FVMs) from patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

Methods: A PCR-amplified complementary DNA (cDNA) library was constructed using the RNAs isolated from FVMs obtained during vitrectomy. The sequence from the 5' end was obtained for randomly selected clones and used to generate expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Functional annotation was retrieved from Ensemble database and analysed by FatiGO. The web-based VisANT software was used to identify the molecular networks within the FVMs.

Results: A total of 2816 ESTs were assembled in 625 non-redundant clusters. Among these, 515 matched the human cDNA database. The 515 clusters were subdivided by functional subsets of genes related to ribosomal activity, oxidative phosphorylation, focal adhesion, cell adhesion and other functions. Querying against the VisANT database yielded 3175 possible physical relationships to other genes/proteins, which included an additional 2480 genes that were not detected in the FVM library.

Conclusions: The cDNA library constructed from human FVMs will be a valuable source of information. It should facilitate a wide range of studies that can establish the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of FVMs.