Figure 4. Cytokeratin expression profile of the corneolimbal epithelium in autoimmune-mediated KCS/SQM.

(A) Transcriptional profiling of ocular surface cytokeratin expression in corneolimbal epithelial cells isolated from WT and Aire KO mice. Quantitative PCR for CK12, CK10, SPRR1B and CK14 were expressed as relative quantitation (RQ) values where an arbitrary WT control mouse was set as the reference (designated 1-fold). RQ values are shown as mean ± SE; n=3 mice per group. Unpaired T-test (CK12 and CK14) or the Kruskal-Wallis Rank Sum test (SPRR1B and CK10) was used to test for differences between WT vs. Aire KO with P<0.05 (*) and P<0.01 (**) considered statistically significant. (B) Downregulation of Pax6 predicts the cytokeratin maturation profile of corneolimbal epithelial cells. Regression analysis shows Pax6 was positively correlated with CK12 but negatively correlated with CK10, CK14 and SPRR1B. R² values are provided.