Tear fluid small molecular antioxidants profiling shows lowered glutathione in keratoconus.

Keratoconus (KC) is a non-inflammatory disease of the cornea involving structural changes. Oxidative stress is reported to be parts of its pathology, yet the tear antioxidant status contributed by smaller molecule antioxidants can be indicative of the disease. Therefore this study is an attempt to present the status of small molecule antioxidants in KC condition as well as the influence of contact lens wear (CLW) in KC as evaluated in the tear specimen. Tear fluid was collected using schirmer strips from KC with and without CLW (n = 40) with age matched controls (n = 29). Tear fluid antioxidants cysteine, ascorbic acid, glutathione, uric acid and tyrosine were determined by HPLC electrochemical detection. Tear reactive oxygen species was estimated by fluorescence detection using dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCF-DA) method. The corneal epithelial mRNA expression of the enzymes, gamma-glutamine cysteinyl synthase (γ-GCS) and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (γ-GT) by semiquantitative RT-PCR. Among the five antioxidant molecules estimated, GSH decreased significantly 50.9 ± 9.4 µM in control and 16 ± 5.7 µM in KC (p = 0.015) with increase in tyrosine 13.9 ± 2.6 µM in control, 30 ± 6.4 µM in KC cases (p = 0.022) and uric acid 162 ± 18 µM in control and 210 ± 32 µM (p < 0.00) in KC compared to the controls. The ROS levels were increased significantly, 55.7 ± 16.7 AU in KC and 23.2 ± 5.8 AU in controls (p = 0.023). No significant change in the tear antioxidants studied was observed in KC cases with and without CL wear. However tyrosine levels were increased significantly in CL wear amongst healthy controls compared to controls (p < 0.000). γ-GCS and γ-GT showed no significant change in KC epithelial cells. Though variations were seen in other antioxidants analysed, they had no statistical significance. Tear specimen in KC can indicate the antioxidant status. KC is associated with increased tear levels of tyrosine, uric acid and decrease in GSH apart from increased ROS. Glutathione decreases with increase in oxidative stress and this emphasises the need for antioxidants to balance the redox status in disease management of KC.

Amino acids potentiate insulin signaling in CHO-K1 at high glucose conditions.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Amino acids reportedly increase the glucose uptake under high glucose conditions. However, there are controversies in the role of amino acids in diabetes mellitus. The present study explores the insulin signaling pathway involved in glucose uptake mediated by amino acids in CHO-K1 cells. METHODS: CHO-K1 cells were exposed to normal (7 mM) and high glucose (17 and 27 mM) with 100 nM insulin in the presence and absence of amino acid mixtures (AAM) in varying concentration (5 and 20 mM) followed by the assays, insulin receptor tyrosine kinase (IRTK) and phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K) by autoradiography, protein kinase B (Akt) and glucose transporter (GLUT4) by Western blot and glycogen synthase (GS) by HPLC. RESULTS: The addition of 5 and 20 mM AAM significantly increased IRTK and PI3K activity (ANOVA p = 0.025, p = 0.003, respectively) with increasing glucose concentration. Addition of 5 mM AAM in the presence of normal glucose significantly increased the levels of phosphorylated Akt Ser473 (p = 0.02) with no significant change at high glucose. At 20 mM AAM there was a significant decrease in Akt phosphorylation (p = 0.035) that was increased by high glucose concentration. GLUT4 protein levels were increased with AAM (5 mM) along with increase in glycogen synthase activity at all glucose concentrations (p <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Amino acids as a mixture is beneficial in augmenting insulin signaling pathway via IRTK/PI3K/GLUT4 pathway along with activation of GS in CHO-K1 cells, thereby ensuring increased intracellular glucose availability.

Two dimensional electrophoretic analysis of human tears: collection method in dry eye syndrome.

Tear proteomics, by 2-DE, can give a fingerprint of the protein profile, which is well suited in clinical proteomics for biomarker identification and in diagnostics. The mode of tear collection can influence the representation of the proteins in the tear and therefore it is important to use the appropriate method. In this study, capillary and Schirmer mode of tear collection was done in the healthy controls and the Schirmer method was validated in dry eye syndrome conditions. 2-D PAGE of normal and dry eye tear was performed using pH 3-10 linear IPG strips followed by 13% SDS-PAGE. The spot intensity was analyzed by the PD quest software. The two methods were compared using Bland-Altman statistical tool. The 2-D map of capillary and Schirmer tear showed 147 ± 8 spots and 145 ± 7 spots respectively. Both the collection methods were in agreement with each other and were comparable. Dry eye tear protein showed differential expression of proteins as observed in 25-35 kDa region. One of the significantly reduced protein was identified as proline-rich 4 protein. Schirmer method of tear collection is reliable in patients with dry eye, which can display the differential protein expression and help in biomarker identification.