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Lapp T, Kammrath Betancor P, Schlunck G, Auw-Hädrich C, Maier P, Lange C, Reinhard T, Wolf J. Transcriptional profiling specifies the pathogen-specific human host response to infectious keratitis. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2024; 13:1285676. [PMID: 38274739 PMCID: PMC10808294 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1285676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2023] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Purpose Corneal infections are a leading cause of visual impairment and blindness worldwide. Here we applied high-resolution transcriptomic profiling to assess the general and pathogen-specific molecular and cellular mechanisms during human corneal infection. Methods Clinical diagnoses of herpes simplex virus (HSV) (n=5) and bacterial/fungal (n=5) keratitis were confirmed by histology. Healthy corneas (n=7) and keratoconus (n=4) samples served as controls. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) human corneal specimens were analyzed using the 3' RNA sequencing method Massive Analysis of cDNA Ends (MACE RNA-seq). The cellular host response was investigated using comprehensive bioinformatic deconvolution (xCell and CYBERSORTx) analyses and by integration with published single cell RNA-seq data of the human cornea. Results Our analysis identified 216 and 561 genes, that were specifically overexpressed in viral or bacterial/fungal keratitis, respectively, and allowed to distinguish the two etiologies. The virus-specific host response was driven by adaptive immunity and associated molecular signaling pathways, whereas the bacterial/fungal-specific host response mainly involved innate immunity signaling pathways and cell types. We identified several genes and pathways involved in the host response to infectious keratitis, including CXCL9, CXCR3, and MMP9 for viral, and S100A8/A9, MMP9, and the IL17 pathway for bacterial/fungal keratitis. Conclusions High-resolution molecular profiling provides new insights into the human corneal host response to viral and bacterial/fungal infection. Pathogen-specific molecular profiles may provide the foundation for novel diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic approaches that target inflammation-induced damage to corneal host cells with the goal to improve the outcome of infectious keratitis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thabo Lapp
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
- Ophtha-Lab, Department of Ophthalmology, St. Franziskus Hospital, Münster, Germany
| | - Paola Kammrath Betancor
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Günther Schlunck
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Claudia Auw-Hädrich
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Philip Maier
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Clemens Lange
- Ophtha-Lab, Department of Ophthalmology, St. Franziskus Hospital, Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Reinhard
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Julian Wolf
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
- Omics Laboratory, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
- Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States
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Polisetti N, Martin G, Ulrich E, Glegola M, Schlötzer-Schrehardt U, Schlunck G, Reinhard T. Influence of Organ Culture on the Characteristics of the Human Limbal Stem Cell Niche. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:16856. [PMID: 38069177 PMCID: PMC10706739 DOI: 10.3390/ijms242316856] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2023] [Revised: 11/23/2023] [Accepted: 11/24/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Organ culture storage techniques for corneoscleral limbal (CSL) tissue have improved the quality of corneas for transplantation and allow for longer storage times. Cultured limbal tissue has been used for stem cell transplantation to treat limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) as well as for research purposes to assess homeostasis mechanisms in the limbal stem cell niche. However, the effects of organ culture storage conditions on the quality of limbal niche components are less well described. Therefore, in this study, the morphological and immunohistochemical characteristics of organ-cultured limbal tissue are investigated and compared to fresh limbal tissues by means of light and electron microscopy. Organ-cultured limbal tissues showed signs of deterioration, such as edema, less pronounced basement membranes, and loss of the most superficial layers of the epithelium. In comparison to the fresh limbal epithelium, organ-cultured limbal epithelium showed signs of ongoing proliferative activity (more Ki-67+ cells) and exhibited an altered limbal epithelial phenotype with a loss of N-cadherin and desmoglein expression as well as a lack of precise staining patterns for cytokeratin ((CK)14, CK17/19, CK15). The analyzed extracellular matrix composition was mainly intact (collagen IV, fibronectin, laminin chains) except for Tenascin-C, whose expression was increased in organ-cultured limbal tissue. Nonetheless, the expression patterns of cell-matrix adhesion proteins varied in organ-cultured limbal tissue compared to fresh limbal tissue. A decrease in the number of melanocytes (Melan-A+ cells) and Langerhans cells (HLA-DR+, CD1a+, CD18+) was observed in the organ-cultured limbal tissue. The organ culture-induced alterations of the limbal epithelial stem cell niche might hamper its use in the treatment of LSCD as well as in research studies. In contrast, reduced numbers of donor-derived Langerhans cells seem associated with better clinical outcomes. However, there is a need to consider the preferential use of fresh CSL for limbal transplants and to look at ways of improving the limbal stem cell properties of stored CSL tissue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naresh Polisetti
- Eye Center, Medical Center—Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Killianstrasse 5, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Gottfried Martin
- Eye Center, Medical Center—Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Killianstrasse 5, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Eva Ulrich
- Eye Center, Medical Center—Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Killianstrasse 5, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Mateusz Glegola
- Eye Center, Medical Center—Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Killianstrasse 5, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Ursula Schlötzer-Schrehardt
- Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
| | - Günther Schlunck
- Eye Center, Medical Center—Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Killianstrasse 5, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Thomas Reinhard
- Eye Center, Medical Center—Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Killianstrasse 5, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
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Wolf J, Kammrath Betancor P, Maier P, Heinzelmann SU, Jiang J, Lange C, Reinhard T, Schlunck G, Lapp T. Transcriptional Profiling Provides New Insights into Organ Culture-Induced Changes in Human Donor Corneas. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms232314507. [PMID: 36498835 PMCID: PMC9735924 DOI: 10.3390/ijms232314507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2022] [Revised: 11/17/2022] [Accepted: 11/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Corneal transplantation is one of the most common forms of tissue transplantation worldwide. Donor corneal tissue used in transplantation is provided by eye banks, which store the tissue in culture medium after procurement. To date, the effects of cell culture on human corneal tissue have not been fully elucidated. Using the 3' RNA sequencing method for massive analysis of cDNA ends (MACE), we show that cultivation of corneal tissue leads to significant changes in a variety of molecular processes in human corneal tissue that go well beyond aspects of previously known culture effects. Functionally grouped network analysis revealed nine major groups of biological processes that were affected by corneal organ culture, among them keratinization, hypoxia, and angiogenesis, with genes from each group being affected by culture time. A cell type deconvolution analysis revealed significant modulations of the corneal immune cell profile in a time dependent manner. The results suggest that current culture conditions should be further refined and that prolonged cultivation may be detrimental. Recently, we showed that MACE enables transcriptional profiling of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) conjunctival tissue with high accuracy even after more than 10 years of storage. Here we demonstrate that MACE provides comparable results for native and FFPE corneal tissue, confirming that the technology is suitable for transcriptome analysis of a wide range of archived diseased corneal samples stored in histological archives. Finally, our data underscore the feasibility of bioinformatics cell-type enrichment analysis in bulk RNA-seq data to profile immune cell composition in fixed and archived corneal tissue samples, for which RNA-seq analysis of individual cells is often not possible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julian Wolf
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
- Omics Laboratory, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
- Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
- Correspondence: (J.W.); (T.L.)
| | - Paola Kammrath Betancor
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Philip Maier
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Sonja Ute Heinzelmann
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Jana Jiang
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Clemens Lange
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
- Ophtha-Lab, Department of Ophthalmology, St. Franziskus Hospital, 48145 Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Reinhard
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Günther Schlunck
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Thabo Lapp
- Eye Center, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
- Correspondence: (J.W.); (T.L.)
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Keye P, Lapp T, Böhringer D, Heinzelmann S, Maier P, Reinhard T. Clinical Course of Different Types of Immune Reactions following Keratoplasty. Klin Monbl Augenheilkd 2021; 240:288-294. [PMID: 34380161 DOI: 10.1055/a-1554-5362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Immune-mediated corneal graft rejection (IR) is a leading cause of corneal graft failure. The endothelium, stroma, epithelium, or a combination can be affected. Little is known about the long-term outcomes of different types of IR. METHODS We reviewed the medical records of all keratoplasties that had been performed at our eye centre between 2003 and 2016 (n = 3934) for any kind of IR that occurred between the surgery and 2019. All patients with a definite diagnosis of IR and sufficient clinical data were included in the analysis. IRs were grouped according to the affected part of the graft (endothelial, stromal, epithelial, and mixed). We analysed the dynamics of recovery and the clinical outcomes. RESULTS We identified a total of 319 patients with IR. Twenty-seven of those were lost to follow-up and were excluded from further analysis. Of the IRs, 89% affected the endothelium. Endothelial IR resulted more frequently in a considerable loss of endothelial cell density than other forms of IR. Stromal IR showed a lower relapse rate and a better visual recovery than other types of IR and resulted less often in a failure of the graft. CONCLUSIONS We herein report comprehensive data about the prognosis regarding functional recovery after different types of IR following keratoplasty. Our data underline that timely recognition and correct classification of IR are important because they determine the clinical course and prognosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip Keye
- Klinik für Augenheilkunde, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Thabo Lapp
- Klinik für Augenheilkunde, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Daniel Böhringer
- Klinik für Augenheilkunde, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Sonja Heinzelmann
- Klinik für Augenheilkunde, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Philip Maier
- Klinik für Augenheilkunde, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Thomas Reinhard
- Klinik für Augenheilkunde, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
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