CHANGES IN EXPRESSION LEVEL OF TLR9AND BD-2 GENES IN CORNEA OF MICE WITHVIRAL KERATITIS

Aim. Study of innate immunity genes expression
(TLR9 and BD-2) in epithelial cells of mice
cornea on the model of viral keratitis during the
application of immunotherapy. Materials and
methods. RNA isolation from cornea cells was
performed by using RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen)
and «RIBO-sorb» (ILS, Russia) reagent kits.
«Kit for performing PCR-RT in the presence
of intercalating dye SYBR Green I» (Syntol,
Russia) was used for performing PCR. Data on
gene expression is presented in decimal logarithms
(relatively to 1 million of ƒ-actin gene
copies). Results. In C57Bl/6 mice line at day 1
post infection the virus was detected in 33% of
animals, at 3 days - in 90%, at 7 days the number
of infected mice started to decline. In cornea of
the mice infected with HSV-1 a significant
decrease of TLR9 gene expression was observed.
Administration of a complex of natural cytokines
and antimicrobial peptides (Superlimf preparation)
caused statistically significant increase of
expression levels of the studied TLR9 and BD-
2 genes. Conclusion. The model of viral keratitis
and expression analysis of recognizing receptor
TLR9 and defensin (BD-2) genes can be used
to study mechanism of action of various preparations
during infection in eye tissues and
evaluation of possibility of their use in complex
therapy of ophthalmic herpes.

innate immunity, herpes infection, keratitis, gene expression, Toll-like receptors, β-defensin 2