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Genetic dependence of central corneal thickness among inbred strains of mice
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Genetic dependence of central corneal thickness among inbred strains of mice

Geoffrey D Lively, Bing Jiang, Adam Hedberg-Buenz, Bo Chang, Greg E Petersen, Kai Wang, Markus H Kuehn and Michael G Anderson
Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, Vol.51(1), pp.160-171
01/2010
DOI: 10.1167/iovs.09-3429
PMCID: PMC2869057
PMID: 19710407
url
https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.09-3429View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Central corneal thickness (CCT) exhibits broad variability. For unknown reasons, CCT also associates with diseases not typically considered corneal, particularly glaucoma. The purpose of this study was to test the strain dependence of CCT variability among inbred mice and identify cellular and molecular factors associated with differing CCT. Methodology for measuring murine CCT with ultrasound pachymetry was developed and used to measure CCT among 17 strains of mice. Corneas from three strains with nonoverlapping differences in CCT (C57BLKS/J, C57BL/6J, and SJL/J) were compared by histology, transmission electron microscopy, and expression profiling with gene microarrays. CCT in mice was highly strain dependent. CCT exhibited continuous variation from 89.2 microm in C57BLKS/J to 123.8 microm in SJL/J. Stromal thickness was the major determinant of the varying murine CCT, with epithelial thickness also contributing. Corneal expression levels of many genes differed between strains with differing CCT, but most of these changes did not correlate with the changes observed in previously studied corneal diseases nor did they correlate with genes encoding major structural proteins of the cornea. Murine CCT has been measured with a variety of different techniques, but only among a limited number of different strains. Here, pachymetry was established as an additional tool and used to conduct a broad survey of different strains of inbred mice. These results demonstrated that murine CCT was highly influenced by genetic background and established a baseline for future genetic approaches to further elucidate mechanisms regulating CCT and its disease associations.
 Cornea - diagnostic imaging Mice, Inbred Strains - genetics Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis Epithelium, Corneal - cytology Cell Count Cornea - physiology Corneal Stroma - ultrastructure Male Gene Expression Profiling Corneal Stroma - cytology Gene Expression - physiology Ultrasonography Mice, Inbred CBA Female Mice, Inbred DBA Eye Proteins - genetics Microscopy, Electron, Transmission Corneal Stroma - metabolism Quantitative Trait, Heritable Mice, Inbred C57BL Epithelium, Corneal - ultrastructure Mice, Inbred NZB Mice, Inbred C3H Animals Cornea - anatomy & histology Epithelium, Corneal - metabolism Mice Mice, Inbred BALB C

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