An Interplay of Microglia and Matrix Metalloproteinase MMP9 Under
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www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN An interplay of microglia and matrix metalloproteinase MMP9 under hypoxic stress regulates the opticin expression in retina Satish Patnaik1,2,6, Meenakshi Rai1,6, Subhadra Jalali3, Komal Agarwal3, Akshay Badakere4, Lavanya Puppala1, Sushma Vishwakarma1, Divya Balakrishnan3, Padmaja K. Rani3, Ramesh Kekunnaya4, Preeti Patil Chhablani4,5, Subhabrata Chakrabarti1 & Inderjeet Kaur1* Infammation plays a key role in the pathogenesis of retinal vascular diseases. We have shown earlier an increase in the activity of matrix metalloproteinases in the vitreous and tears of preterm born babies with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) compared to those with no-ROP leading to a shift in the balance of angiogenic (vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF], matrix metalloproteinase [MMPs], complement component [C3]) and anti-angiogenic (opticin, thrombospondin) in ROP eyes. We now confrmed that tear MMP levels in premature infants perfectly correlates with disease severity. Next, we demonstrated that a reduced opticin levels in ROP vitreous are regulated by MMPs secreted by activated microglia. Upon exposing the human microglia cell line (CHME3) to hypoxia, an increased expression of infammatory proteins (MMP9, VEGF) was noticed while opticin reduced signifcantly (p = 0.005). Further, the reduced opticin’s expression by microglial cells under hypoxia could be rescued by inhibiting the MMP activity using doxycycline and EDTA. The inhibition of MMP activity altered the expression of other key signaling molecules under hypoxia. Our study clearly explains that increased activity of MMPs under hypoxia regulates the expression of opticin as seen in the vitreous humor of ROP and could serve as a potential target for ROP management. Abbreviations ROP Retinopathy of prematurity MMP9 Matrix metalloproteinase 9 MMP2 Matrix metalloproteinase 2 OPTC Opticin VEGF Vascular endothelial growth factor BRB Blood-retinal barrier ECM Extracellular matrix TIMP1 Tissue inhibitory metalloproteases 1 TIMP2 Tissue inhibitory metalloproteases 2 C3 Complement component 3 SLRPs Small leucine rich proteins EDTA Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid dNTPs Deoxy nucleotide triphosphates bp Base pair IgG Immunoglobulin G 1Prof. Brien Holden Eye Research Centre, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India. 2Department of Animal Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. 3Smt. Kannuri Santhamma Centre for Vitreo Retinal Diseases, Hyderabad, India. 4Jasti V Ramanamma Children’s Eye Care Centre, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India. 5University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, USA. 6These authors contributed equally: Satish Patnaik and Meenakshi Rai. *email: [email protected] Scientifc Reports | (2021) 11:7444 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86302-2 1 Vol.:(0123456789) www.nature.com/scientificreports/ IHC Immunohistochemistry IF Immunofuorescence FnII Fibronectin type II PDB Protein data bank CoCl2 Cobalt chloride ERK1 Extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 ERK2 Extracellular signal-regulated kinases 2 DKK1 Dickkopf WNT signaling pathway inhibitor 1 NOTCH1 Notch receptor 1 CHME3 Microglia cell line RPE Retinal pigment epithelium EC Endothelial cells ml Millilitre M Molar μl Microliter mM Millimolar ng Nanogram μg Microgram μM Micromolar GA Gestational age BW Birth weight OIR Oxygen induced retinopathy PAGE Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis NPE Non-pigmented epithelial RGH Retinal growth hormone OS Outer segment IL Inner nuclear layer IPL Inner plexiform layer NFL Nerve fber layer TNF Tumor necrosis factor TGF beta1 Transforming growth factor beta 1 ROS Reactive oxygen species NO Nitric oxide Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is one of the most common causes of childhood blindness 1. It is a vaso- proliferative eye disease in premature babies characterized by abnormal blood vessel growth in the retina that can cause retinal detachment and eventually lead to blindness 2. Annually in India, nearly 1.2 million babies are prone to develop ROP 3. Te reported risk factors for ROP include low birth weight, low gestational age, gender, eth- nicity, light exposure, blood transfusion and other maternal risk factors. However, gestational age, birth-weight and oxygen supplementation (to some extent) have been found to be the key defning factors across multiple studies worldwide4. ROP is an exceedingly complex disease, as in some set of premature infants, it regresses spontaneously while in others, it progresses from mild form (ROP-stage I, II) to severe form (ROP-stage III, IV,V) eventually leading to total vision loss if not treated timely. While ROP is considered to be a hypoxia driven neo- vascular condition, till date the underlying molecular mechanisms contributing to pathogenesis of ROP remain unclear. Probably, various pathological disease-causing risk factors together lead to the progression of ROP. Most commonly proposed mechanism for the pathogenesis of ROP are hypoxia induced vaso-attenuation and vaso- proliferation leading to oxidative stress 5 that further induces the release of pro-infammatory and pro-angiogenic molecules in ROP patients6. All these factors together play a crucial role in the progression of the disease. ROP being a vitreoretinal condition, alters the homeostatic balance of anti- and angiogenic proteins in the vitreous6. Vitreous gel is optically transparent and is composed of diverse proteins (collagens, albumin, IgG, oxidative stress enzymes and cytokines), proteoglycans (hyaluronan and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans) and small molecules7. Due to proximity of vitreous with retina, especially when the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) is damaged, the secretory product of retina gets accumulated in the vitreous 8. Moreover, in vitreoretinal diseases, the vitreous composition also changes due to diferential expression of proteins under various disease conditions 7. Terefore, studying diferential protein profling in the vitreous gel may help in understanding the underlying mechanisms of ROP. Immunohistochemistry of the ridge membrane formed at stage II showed by the presence of endothelial cells, macroglial cells, microglia and few proliferating cells9. However, the exact role of microglia in ROP pathogen- esis is not completely understood. Findings from our recent study on ROP suggested that activated microglia secretes elevated levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs) and pro-infammatory molecules into the vitreous and the retina10. Te elevated levels of activated MMPs might cause extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation, in turn, promoting angiogenesis. Te signifcant increase in MMP9, tissue inhibitory metalloproteases (TIMP1), and α2 macroglobulin in the ROP vitreous further confrmed it. Dysregulation of MMP2, and MMP9 were also detected reproducibly in stage dependent manner in ROP tear samples10. A pilot vitreous proteome profling study (unpublished data) by our group revealed a lower expression of opticin, an anti-angiogenic protein in ROP patients. Opticin is present abundantly in human vitreous, and secreted into the vitreous cavity by non-pigmented epithelial cells constantly to maintain its balanced levels 11. Opticin is an extra cellular matrix (ECM) glycoprotein associated with the collagen fbrils and the retinal growth Scientifc Reports | (2021) 11:7444 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86302-2 2 Vol:.(1234567890) www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Figure 1. Representative image of (A) western blot of opticin levels in ROP patients and controls (B) representative gelatin zymography of vitreous from ROP and congenital cataract (controls) (C) quantifcation of opticin (45 K Da) levels in vitreous samples of ROP (n = 30) and control (n = 30) and MMPs in ROP (n = 11) and control (n = 11) (D) MMPs levels estimated in ROP tears samples by zymography in extended cohort, quantifcation of MMP9 and MMP2 estimated for severe ROP (n = 16), mild progressed to progressed ROP (n = 12), mild ROP to regressed ROP (n = 12), and no ROP premature controls (n = 18), **p = 0.001, *p = 0.05; data represented as mean ± SEM, C, control vitreous; R, ROP vitreous; L, protein ladder. hormone12 in the vitreous cavity. It is also identifed in the other tissues like cartilage, brain and heart 11,13. Te 332 amino acid protein has a sequence that is homologous to class III small leucine rich proteins (SLRPs), epiphycan and osteoglycan, with a consensus sequence of LXXLXLXXNXL. Tese SLRP’s confned by conserved cysteine residues interact with ECM. Te role of opticin in angiogenesis has been previously identifed in murine oxygen mouse model and cell culture model14,15. Te opticin knockout model showed increased neovascularization compared to wild type mice 14. Based on this background, we hypothesized that the abnormal activity of MMPs under hypoxic conditions afects the opticin levels and thereby contributes to increased infammation in the retina causing ROP progression. Results Role of ECM proteins in ROP. Te western blotting and zymography for ECM proteins including opticin and MMPs (MMP2, and MMP9) respectively showed a downregulation of opticin (45 k Da) with an increase in MMPs activity in the vitreous samples of ROP patients (Fig. 1A and B; Supplementary Fig. 1). Te diferen- tial expression of MMP2 (p-value = 0.00001), MMP9 (p-value = 0.000003) and opticin (p-value = 0.0009) was found to be statistically signifcant thereby indicating an important role of these proteins in ROP pathogenesis (Fig. 1C). Next, we performed validation of MMPs levels in tear samples collected at the