Abstract
Purpose
To determine if there is diurnal variation in gene expression in normal healthy conjunctival
cells.
Methods
Bulbar conjunctival swab samples were collected from four healthy subjects in the
morning and evening of the same day. The two swab samples were taken from one eye
of each participant, with a minimum of five hours gap between the two samples. RNA
was extracted and analysed using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq).
Results
A total of 121 genes were differentially expressed between the morning and the evening
conjunctival samples, of which 94 genes were upregulated in the morning, and 27 genes
were upregulated in the evening. Many of the genes that were upregulated in the morning
were involved in defence, cell turnover and regulation of gene expression, while the
genes upregulated in the evening were involved in signalling and mucin production.
Conclusions
This study has identified several genes whose expression changes over the course of
the day. Knowledge of diurnal variations of conjunctival gene expression provides
an insight into the regulatory status of the healthy eye and provides a baseline for
examining changes during ocular surface disease.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 24, 2021
Accepted:
July 19,
2021
Received in revised form:
July 16,
2021
Received:
April 10,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 British Contact Lens Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
