the transcriptomic profiling of HCECs (PAI-2 knockout and control) exposed to PM2.5 for 3 hours

We previously found that PAI-2 mediates long-term PM2.5 exposure-induced corneal damage in vivo and in vitro, while its role during subclinical stage remains unclear. In this study,we constructed PAI-2 knockout-human corneal epithelial cells (KO) and the negative control (NC). Transcriptome analysis was performed in three groups: NC, PM2.5-exposed NC, KO and PM2.5-exposed KO. These analysis suggested cell-ECM interactions might play an important role in PAI-2-induced corneal injury upon PM2.5 exposure. Overall design: PAI-2 KO and NC were exposed to PM2.5 for 3 hours and mRNA was isolated for RNA sequencing.