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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1454840
Metabolomics analysis of aqueous humor from patients with high-myopia complicated nuclear cataract
Provisionally accepted- 1 Department of Otolaryngology, Eye & ENT Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 2 Affiliated Eye Hospital to Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
We investigated the metabolic profiles of aqueous humor (AH) among patients with high-myopia complicated nuclear cataract (HMnC) , age-related nuclear cataract (NC), cortical cataract (CC), and high myopia (HM); we sought to identify possible metabolic mediators for these conditions.The metabolic data of AH from 29 patients (nine with HMnC, nine with CC, seven with NC, and four with high myopia) were analyzed by liquid chromatographytandem mass spectrometry. Principal component analysis, sample correlation analysis, and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis modeling were conducted. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify differential metabolites with potential biological significance.Results: For HMnC patients, the level of glutathione was decreased, whereas arginine, tyrosine, and tryptophan were more abundant in AH. Dihomomethionine and 8-Methylthiooctanaldoxime located in the methionine metabolic pathways were downregulated in NC samples compared with HMnC samples. Additionally, the levels of D-Alanyl-D-alanine, 1-methylpyrrolinium, L-phenylalanine, ecgonine methyl ester, ecgonine, tropinone, and azacyclohexane, NNK-N-oxide, 3-Succinoylpyridine, and N-Nitrosodimethylamine were all upregulated in HM samples compared with HMnC samples.Conclusions: This work identified valuable metabolic biomarkers and pathways that may improve understanding HMnC pathogenesis. Here, we found that a decrease in glutathione might promote the occurrence of HMnC. Arginine, tyrosine, and tryptophan were more abundant in AH from HMnC patients and tended to prevent HMnC progression. These findings have translational value in terms of developing new therapeutic measures for HMnC -related complications.
Keywords: high-myopia complicated nuclear cataract, Aqueous Humor, HPLC-MS, Metabolites, Enrichment analysis
Received: 25 Jun 2024; Accepted: 06 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huo, Xu, Wang, Zhang, Liu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhexuan Liu, Affiliated Eye Hospital to Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
Jin Li, Affiliated Eye Hospital to Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
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