| Summary: | Objective To explore the global changes of gene expression profile in the retina after terahertz (THz) radiation exposure in order to reveal the signal pathways and key genes involved in the process of visual system damage. Methods Mouse eyes were exposed to THz radiation at an average power density of 80 mW for 2 min. Then the retinal tissues were harvested to extract total RNA for RNA-seq analysis. The differential expression genes (DEGs) and their functions were identified with a certain condition for Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis. Real-time PCR was used to further explore the time-dependent effects of THz exposure on the expression of the key genes related to retinal injury from DEGs. Results There were 625 up-regulated genes and 9 down-regulated genes screened out through the condition of P < 0.05 and |logFC|≥1. The GO analysis revealed that the DEGs were mainly composed of extracellular components as the complementary biological concept of cellular component (CC), mainly related to protein binding as the concept of molecular function (MF), and were associated with response to external stimulus and cell proliferation as the concept of biological process (BP). The KEGG analysis indicated that most DEGs were enriched in the PPAR, PI3K-Akt, and tumor- and calcium-related signaling pathways. Real-time PCR displayed that the expression levels of Krt12, Cfd, Wnt3a and Adipoq were up-regulated, while those of Krt12, Cfd, Wnt3a and Adipoq were up-regulated, while those of Foxe3, Serpine3, Lix1, Rpe65, Rgr and Arsi were down-regulated in the injured retinal tissues after THz irradiation exposure for 5 min and 24 h, and the changes were more significant after 5 minutes' than 24 hours' exposure. Conclusion THz radiation exposure causes abnormal expression of a large number of genes in retinal tissue, indicating the exposure may induce retinal injury.
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