ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the influence of Nei endonuclease Ⅷ-like protein 1(NEIL1)on H2O2-induced apoptosis and autophagy in lens epithelial cells(LECs).Methods Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)was used to detect the expression of NEIL1 messenger ribonucleic acid(mRNA)in the anterior lens capsule and LEC line SRA01/04 cells from age-related cataract(ARC)patients and macular epiretinal membrane patients who underwent the clear lens extraction.SRA01/04 cells were then divided into the control group,OE-Vector group and OE-NEIL1 group.RT-PCR and Western blot(WB)were used to detect the overexpression efficiency.Subsequently,the cells were divided into the control group,H2O2 group,OE-Vector H2O2 group and OE-NEIL1 H2O2 group;cell viability was detected by Cell Count-ing Kit-8,WB was used to evaluate the expression of autophagy-related proteins(ATG7,P62,Beclinl,LC3-Ⅰ and LC3-Ⅱ)and apoptosis-related proteins(Bax and Bcl-2),and fluorescent staining was adopted to measure cell apoptosis and mito-chondrial membrane potential.Results The expression of NEIL1 mRNA in the anterior lens capsule samples from ARC patients was significantly lower than that of macular epiretinal membrane patients,and the expression of NEIL1 mRNA in the SRA01/04 cells in the H2O2 group was also lower than that in the control group(both P＜0.05).The results of RT-PCR and WB revealed that the expressions of NEIL1 mRNA and protein in the SRA01/04 cells of the OE-NEIL1 group were signif-icantly higher than those in the OE-Vector group(both P=0.000).Compared with the control group,the viability of SRA01/04 cells in the H2O2 group decreased,the expression of the Bax protein was up-regulated,the Bcl-2 protein was down-regulated,viable cells labeled with Mito-Tracker decreased,and apoptotic cells labeled with Annexin V-FITC in-creased,with statistical significances(all P＜0.05).Compared with the OE-Vector H2O2 group,in the OE-NEIL1 H2O2 group,the viability of SRA01/04 cells significantly improved,the autophagy-related proteins(ATG7,P62,Beclin1,LC3-Ⅰand LC3-Ⅱ)and Bcl-2 protein were significantly up-regulated,the Bax protein was down-regulated,viable cells marked with Mito-Tracker increased,and apoptotic cells labeled with Annexin V-FITC decreased(all P＜0.05).Conclusion Under the oxidative stress induced by H2O2,NEIL1 can promote autophagy of LECs,maintain homeostasis of LECs,and then increase cell viability and reduce apoptosis of LECs,participating in the occurrence and development of ARC.