Table 2. Genes with significant differential transcript expression in early and advanced keratoconus.
| Gene Name | CTRL (dCT)* ±$ | eKC (dCT)* ±$ | Fold Change | p value | aKC (dCT)* ±$ | Fold Change | p value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KRT16 | 5.12±0.19 | 8.61±0.38 | 0.09 | <0.0001 | 6.42±1.09 | 0.41 | 0.5125 |
| KRT14 | 2.44±0.34 | 4.11±0.42 | 0.31 | 0.044 | 1.30±0.97 | 2.20 | 1 |
| SPRR1A | 4.44±0.69 | 6.72±0.3734 | 0.21 | 0.0022 | 6.32±0.61 | 0.25 | 0.056 |
| SPRR2A | 3.55±0.37 | 6.74±0.46 | 0.11 | <0.0001 | 5.61±0.59 | 0.22 | 0.011 |
| SPRR3 | 6.57±0.9079 | 9.89±0.31 | 0.10 | 0.0006 | 9.24±0.79 | 0.13 | 0.11 |
| TGM1 | 3.91±0.17 | 5.81±0.29 | 0.27 | <0.0001 | 4.62±035 | 0.69 | 0.086 |
| TGM5 | 5.32±0.52 | 8.19±0.54 | 0.14 | 0.009 | 6.76±0.27 | 0.37 | 0.081 |
* Mean expression normalized to that of housekeeping genes (geometric mean of UBB, TBB and B2M). dCT: deltaCycleThreshold.
$ Standard error to the mean. CTRL, control; eKC, early keratoconus; aKC, advanced keratoconus. Differentially expressed genes (0.5 ≥ fold change ≥ 2 and P value ≤ 0.05) are indicated in grey. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test. P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.