Comparison between the gene expression profile of human Müller cells and two spontaneous Müller cell lines.
OBJECTIVE
Müller cells are the principal glial cells in the retina. They play important functions in this tissue. Alterations in Müller cell behavior were observed in the retinal tissue of patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. The purpose of this study was to determine the gene expression profile of normal human Müller cells (NHMCs) and to compare it with that of two spontaneously generated human Müller cell lines (HMCLs) from type 1 and type 2 diabetic donors by using serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE).


METHODS
Approximatively 50,000 tags were sequenced for each SAGE library. Identification of the transcripts was obtained by matching the 15-bp tags with the UniGene and GenBank databases. Classification of the genes was based on the updated information of the genome directory found at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Web site.


RESULTS
SAGE was used to characterize the entire transcriptome of human Müller cells and to compare these data with those from Müller cell lines generated from type 1 and type 2 diabetic donors. The transcriptome of NHMCs and HMCLs demonstrated that "metabolism" and "protein synthesis" are the two main categories of genes expressed by human Müller cells. Only 106 genes are differentially expressed between NHMCs and HMCLs.


CONCLUSIONS
The SAGE libraries reported in this article provide the gene expression profile of NHMCs and HMLCs. It thus represents a valuable source of information regarding the function of Müller cells as well as their role in the development of diabetic retinopathy.
Lupien
Caroline B
CB
Unité de Recherche en Ophtalmologie, Centre de Recherche du CHUQ, Ste-Foy, Québec, Canada.
Bolduc
Carl
C
Landreville
Solange
S
Salesse
Christian
C
D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D002460:Cell Line; D019295:Computational Biology; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000150:complications*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications*; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009457:Neuroglia / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D015415:Biomarkers