Effect of zinc chelator TPEN on gene expression of retinal ganglion cells during optic nerve injury

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) convey the major output of information collected from the eye to the brain. RGCs are irreversibly lost when injured in degenerative diseases such as glaucoma; this failure can be partially reversed by eliminating the retinal mobile zinc (Zn2+) and leads to substantial axon regeneration. Here, we conducted an mRNA sequencing of flow cytometry-isolated RGCs 3 days after optic nerve injury (NC) with or without TPEN treatment. We identified differentially expressed genes using a cutoff of at least 1.5-fold change and FDR of at least 0.05. We focused on the intersecting genes that were upregulated after NC and recovered in TPEN (TPEN/NC; fold change < -1.5; P < 0.05), namely, TPEN target genes. Ctrl: RGCs isolated from normal intact retinas NC: RGCs isolated from optic nerve crush retinas with PBS intraocular injection TPEN: RGCs isolated from optic nerve crush retinas with zinc chelator (TPEN) intraocular injection