The Role of Lumican in the Formation of Bio-Glass: Transparent Cornea
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UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI DATE: January 31, 2003 I, Eric Curtis Carlson , hereby submit this as part of the requirements for the degree of: Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in: Cell and Molecular Biology It is entitled: The Role of Lumican in Bio-glass Formation: Transparent Cornea Approved by: Winston Kao, Ph.D. Gary Dean, Ph.D. James Funderburgh, Ph.D. Wallace Ip, Ph.D. Lawrence Sherman, Ph.D. The Role of Lumican in the Formation of Bio-glass: Transparent Cornea A dissertation submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in the Graduate Program of Cell and Molecular Biology of the College of Medicine 2002 by Eric C. Carlson B.A. Biology, Thiel College, 1997 Committee Chair: Winston W.-Y. Kao, Ph.D. Gary Dean, Ph.D. James Funderburgh, Ph.D. Wallace Ip, Ph.D. Lawrence Sherman, Ph.D. Abstract Corneal opacity leaves 1.5 million people visually impaired worldwide. One potential key player in the formation and maintenance of corneal transparency is a keratan sulfate proteoglycan lumican. The role of lumican in the formation and maintenance of bio-glass, transparent cornea, was examined using three different experimental systems. First, a wound healing system was used to understand the expression of lumican by corneal cells during stromal matrix restructuring and remodeling. Three different types of wounds were generated on mouse corneas: partial epithelial debridement, total epithelial debridement, and alkali burn wounds. Lumican expression was analyzed over a 12 week time course. Second, cultured corneal fibroblasts were used in an ex vivo expression system to determine the impact of lumican on collagen fibrillogenesis. Cultured corneal fibroblasts were stably transfected with either a wild- type lumican (lumWT) or 41cysteine to serine mutated lumican (lumC/S). Under proper conditions stable transformants formed a three-dimensional extracellular matrix over a 4 or 6 week time period. Finally, DNA microinjection into the corneal stroma was used as an in vivo expression system. Our results demonstrate the following: (1) the amount of lumican expression by corneal stroma cells in a wound healing situation decreases during stromal remodeling and is also dependent on the severity of the wound. This finding indicates that the gene expression pattern of keratocytes is lost during the wound healing response. (2) Mutation of 41Cys to serine is adequate to impair the role of lumican in ex vivo collagen fibrillogenesis. The actual interaction of lumican with collagen is disrupted by this single amino acid mutation. The actual impact is possibly due to a structural change caused by this mutation. (3) Plasmid DNA ii microinjection into the corneal stroma is an effective tool to drive protein expression and is adequate to rescue the thin corneal stroma phenotype of lumican null mice. DNA microinjection into the corneal stroma is capable of being an efficient and safe way to serve as a gene therapy strategy in treating ocular surface diseases. This technique is simple, non-invasive, and effective in expressing a therapeutic protein of interest. iii iv This dissertation is dedicated to my wife, Becky, and my daughter, Courtney. v Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Departments of Cell Biology, Neurobiology, and Anatomy and Ophthalmology for the opportunity to pursue my doctorate degree. A special thank you goes to my advisor, Dr. Winston W-Y Kao, for providing guidance and resources during my thesis research, and still allowing me to think independently. I would like to thank my thesis committee: Dr. Gary Dean, Dr. James Funderburgh, Dr. Wally Ip, and Dr. Larry Sherman for their time, comments, and words of wisdom. I would also like to thank my collaborators Dr. David Birk (Thomas Jefferson University) and Dr. Jim Funderburgh (University of Pittsburgh) for their technical expertise. I would like to thank the members of the Kao Lab, especially Dr. Chia-Yang Liu, for all their help. A sincere appreciation is expressed to Drs. Robert Brackenbury and Linda Parysek for providing an educational guidance, a hunting sanctuary, but especially for being good friends. Finally, I would like to thank my wife Becky. The pursuit of my doctorate was frustrating at times, but her support, love, and encouragement helped me through it. I would also like to thank her for my future hunting partner, Courtney. vi Table of Contents Title Page i Abstract ii Blank Page iv Dedication v Acknowledgements vi Table of Contents 1 List of Tables and Figures 3 List of Symbols 10 Introduction 13 Chapter One: Corneal Wound Healing 20 Abstract 21 Introduction 23 Materials and Methods 26 Results 31 Discussion 35 - 1 - Figures 39 Chapter Two: Role of Lumican in Collagen Fibrillogenesis 51 Abstract 52 Introduction 54 Materials and Methods 58 Results 63 Discussion 69 Figures 73 Conclusions and Future Directions 87 References 92 Appendix: In vivo Lumican overexpression 104 Role of 41Cys in the N-terminal 125 Domain of Lumican in Ex Vivo Collagen Fibrillogenesis by Cultured Corneal Stromal Cells Biochemical Journal 2002 0593. - 2 - List of Tables and Figures Chapter One Figure 1 Fluorescein staining of partial epithelial debridement, total epithelial debridement, and alkali burn wounds using light microscopy. Figure 2 Hematoxylin and eosin staining of paraffin sections of partial epithelial debridement, total epithelial debridement, and alkali burn wounds at 2 hours, 1 week, and 2 weeks post-injury. Figure 3 Whole mount light microscopy depicting corneal opacity and neovascularization of total epithelial debridement and partial epithelial debridement wounds. - 3 - Figure 4 Paraffin section of total epithelial debridement wounded cornea stained with methyl green to show presence of goblet cells in corneal epithelium. Figure 5 Keratin 12 immunostaining of partial epithelial debridement and total epithelial debridement wounds. Figure 6 Keratin 12 in situ hybridization of partial and total epithelial debridement wounds. Figure 7 Keratocan in situ hybridization of partial epithelial debridement, total epithelial debridement, and alkali burn wounds at 6 weeks post-injury. Figure 8 Keratocan in situ hybridization of partial epithelial debridement, total epithelial debridement, and alkali burn wounds at 12 weeks post-injury. - 4 - Figure 9 Histogram of data generated from Real-Time RT-PCR using lumican probes in the three wound types. Chapter Two Figure 11 Schematic Diagram of Lumican minigenes cloned into pSecTag2A vector with corresponding DNA and amino acid sequences. Figure 12 1% agarose gel stained with Ethidium Bromide of stable transformant PCR genotyping Figure 13 Growth curve of stable transformant over a 7 day period - 5 - Figure 14 Western blot analysis of stable transformant conditioned media probed with anti-lumican antibody. Figure 15 Light microscopy of 6 week 3-D cell culture semi-thin section. Figure 16 Transmission electron micrograph of lumWT and lumC/S 3-D cell culture extracellular matrix collagen fibrils at 4 weeks and 6 weeks. Figure 17 Histogram of transmission electron microscopy measurement of collagen fibrils in the lumWT and lumC/S cultures at 4 weeks and 6 weeks. Figure 18 Confocal micrograph of propidium iodide staining and immunofluorescence of anti-lumican and anti-collagen I in lumWT and lumC/S 3-D cultures - 6 - Figure 19 Confocal micrograph of anti-lumican, anti-collagen I immunofluorescent staining, and an overlay. Figure 20 Histogram of pixel values calculated from anti-lumican and anti-collagen I immunofluorescent staining and superimposed images. Figure 21 Light stereomicroscopy photograph of corneal stroma DNA injection using 33 gauge needle Figure 22 Fluorescent microscopy picture of EGFP fluorescence emitted from cornea of lumican knock-out (-/-) mouse microinjected with CMV-EGFP. Figure 23 Paraffin sections of lumican knock-out (-/-) cornea following DNA microinjection and anti-lumican immunostaining. - 7 - Figure 24 Schematic of keratocan promoter driven lumican wild- type and lumican C/S constructs for transgenic mouse generation. Figure 25 Schematic of LumX minigenes cloned into keratocan promoter. Figure 26 pKeraLumWT construct for blastocyst injection digested with FspI and SacII to release transgene from the vector backbone. Figure 27 pKeraLumC/S construct for blastocyst injection digested with FspI and SacII to release transgene from the vector backbone. Figure 28 1% agarose gel stained with Ethidium Bromide of transgenic mouse founders’ genomic DNA PCR genotyping. - 8 - Figure 29 RT-PCR of KeraLumWT transgenic founders for lines 5, 25, and 38. Figure 30 A Western blot of corneal extracts using anti-lumican antibody to determine lumican expression level in transgenic mouse cornea. Figure 31 Real-time RT-PCR of transgenic mouse cornea from KeraLumWT line 25 Figure 32 Western blot analysis of corneal extracts using anti- keratocan antibody to determine the expression level in transgenic mouse cornea. Figure 33 PCR genotyping of KeraLumC/S transgenic mice founders on 1% agarose gel stained with Ethidium Bromide. - 9 - LIST OF SYMBOLS 3-D Three dimensional α Anti- ANOVA Analysis of variance bp Base pair Cys Cysteine DEPC Diethylpyrocarbonate DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid DNase Deoxyribonuclease dNTPs Deoxynucleotidetriphosphate DTT Dithiothreitol ECL Enhanced chemiluminescence ECM Extracellular matrix EDTA Disodium Ethylenediaminetetraacetate EGFP Enhanced green fluorescent protein fg femtogram g Gram GAPDH