Glucocorticoid Induced Changes in Gene Expression in Human Lens Epithelial Cells

Prolonged use of glucocorticoids can lead to the formation of a cataract, however the mechanism is not known. We recently reported the presence of the functional glucocorticoid receptor in immortalized cultured mammalian lens epithelial cells (Gupta & Wagner, Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2003), but the short term biological effect of glucocorticoid action in lens epithelial cells is not known. This study seeks to examine glucocorticoid induced changes in global gene expression in LECs. RNA isolated from HLE B-3 cells, treated with Dex or Veh for 4 or 16 hours, was used to analyze global changes in gene expression by microarray hybridization. Microarray studies at 2 time periods demonstrate that glucocorticoids modulate gene expression in immortalized human LECs, reveal novel changes in gene expression, and confirms an endogenous genomic lens glucocorticoid response. Keywords: treatment response HLE B-3 cells were treated with 1uM dexamethasone or vehicle for 4 or 16 hours in triplicate. Total RNA was converted to cRNA and hybridized to Affymetrix HUM_133A genechips. Images were acquired using the Affymetrix GeneArray scanner. Data was extracted using Affymetrix Microarray Suite 5.0.