Regulation of Corneal Repair by Metalloproteinases

描述（由申请人提供）：角膜混浊影响数百万人，是世界上第二大致盲原因。有效的药物治疗威胁视力的角膜混浊是一个主要的未满足的临床挑战。损伤是角膜混浊的主要原因，可通过多种机制发生，包括感染性和非感染性溃疡、切口和激光手术以及创伤。损伤后，蛋白酶调节修复过程的各个方面，包括炎症、新血管形成和重塑。导致角膜瘢痕形成的过度蛋白水解与角膜透明度的丧失有关。基质金属蛋白酶（MMP）是与人类角膜创伤修复相关的最重要的蛋白酶家族。长期以来人们已经认识到，角膜损伤后的组织破坏和角膜病理学与MMP介导的过度蛋白水解活性有关。然而，MMPs在修复反应中的潜在保护作用被低估了。我们已经发现MMP 12（巨噬细胞金属弹性蛋白酶）在损伤的角膜中表达，并且在伤口修复期间对角膜纤维化具有保护作用。我们的初步数据表明，MMP 12保护角膜基质肌成纤维细胞转化，MMP 12通过调节VEGFA表达减弱角膜对损伤的血管生成反应，MMP 12通过调节CCL 2表达抑制受伤角膜中巨噬细胞的积累。总的来说，这些数据证明了MMP 12在角膜损伤的纤维化、新生血管和炎症反应中的保护作用。此外，我们的研究结果表明，MMP 12作为一个重要的因素，需要维持角膜清晰度受伤后。鉴于这些发现，我们假设MMP 12调节CCL 2表达是MMP 12抑制炎症和新生血管形成的常见机制。该假设将在以下特定目的的实验中得到解决：（1）确定MMP 12在调节CCL 2和CCR 2表达中的作用;（2）确定MMP 12和CCL 2在调节角膜新生血管形成中的相互作用;和（3）表征患者角膜样品中MMP 12的表达和活性水平。这种分子和翻译方法的结合将为MMP 12保护角膜纤维化的机制提供新的见解，并将开辟开发旨在预防和治疗人类患者病理性纤维化的新模式的可能性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Corneal opacification affects millions of people and is the second leading cause of blindness in the world. The effective medical treatment of vision-threatening corneal opacification is a major unmet clinical challenge. Injury is a major cause of corneal opacification and can occur by a variety of mechanisms including infectious and noninfectious ulcers, incisional and laser surgery, and trauma. Following injury, proteinases regulate aspects of the repair process including inflammation, neovascularization, and remodeling. Excessive proteolysis resulting in corneal scarring has been associated with loss of corneal clarity. The matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs) represent the most prominent family of proteinases associated with corneal wound repair in humans. It has long been appreciated that tissue destruction and corneal pathology following corneal injury is associated with excessive proteolytic activity mediated by MMPs. However, potential protective effects of MMPs in the repair response are underappreciated. We have found that MMP12 (macrophage metalloelastase) is expressed in injured corneas and has a protective effect on corneal fibrosis during wound repair. Our preliminary data show that MMP12 protects against corneal stromal myofibroblast transformation, that MMP12 blunts the corneal angiogenic response to injury via regulation of VEGFA expression, and that MMP12 inhibits the accumulation of macrophages in wounded corneas via regulation of CCL2 expression. Collectively, these data demonstrate a protective role of MMP12 in the fibrotic, neovascular, and inflammatory responses to corneal injury. Furthermore, our findings suggest MMP12 as an important factor needed for the maintenance of corneal clarity following injury. Given these findings, we hypothesize that MMP12 regulation of CCL2 expression is a common mechanism by which MMP12 inhibits inflammation and neovascularization. This hypothesis will be addressed in the experiments of the following Specific Aims: (1) to define the role of MMP12 in the regulation of expression of CCL2 and CCR2; (2) to determine the interplay of MMP12 and CCL2 in the regulation of corneal neovascularization; and (3) to characterize MMP12 expression and activity levels in patient corneal samples. This combination of molecular and translational approaches will provide novel insight into the mechanisms by which MMP12 protects against corneal fibrosis and will open the possibility of developing novel modalities aimed at preventing and treating pathological fibrosis in human patients.