Citation

Struebing FL, King R, Li Y, Chrenek MA, Lyuboslavsky PN, Sidhu CS, Iuvone PM, Geisert EE. J. Neurotrauma 2018; 35(1): 118-129.

Affiliation

Emory University, 1371, Ophthalmology, Atlanta, Georgia, United States ; egeiser@emory.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2017.5104

PMID

28599600

Abstract

Ocular blast injury is a major medical concern for soldiers and explosion victims due to poor visual outcomes. To define the changes in gene expression following a blast injury to the eye, we examined retinal RNA expression in 54 mouse strains five days after a single 50psi overpressure air wave blast injury. We observe that almost 40% of genes are differentially expressed with a false discovery rate of <0.001, even though the nominal changes in RNA expression are rather small. Moreover, we find through machine learning approaches that genetic networks related to the innate and acquired immune system are activated. Accompanied by lymphocyte invasion into the inner retina, blast injury also results in progressive loss of visual function and retinal ganglion cells. Collectively, these data demonstrate how systems genetics can be used to put meaning to the transcriptome changes following ocular blast injury that eventually lead to blindness.

Language: en

Keywords

GENOMICS; MODELS OF INJURY; NEURAL INJURY; TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY