IERG Abstracrt Book.indd - LV Prasad Eye Institute

72 Basic Poster Sessionsassociated with the severity of disease (p=0.01), neovascularisation (NVE) (p=0.04), vitreoushemorrhage (VH) (p=0.02), tractional retinal detachment (TRD) (p=0.04). Decrease in VitaminA was found to be associated with active periphlebitis (0.05), NVD (0.05), TRD (p=0.001). Hcyswas found to be not correlating with the disease severity.Conclusions: Clinical correlations of the disease namely, NVE, VH and TRD is seen with theplasma levels of VEGF in ED. VEGF which is a known angiogenic factor involved in NVE and VHseen in ED can be targeted for treatment in ED. Improving Vitamin A and GSH levels in ED canbe beneficial.IBP 020Semitransparency of Anuron NictitansRajeev Raman, Yogendra SharmaCentre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, IndiaPurpose: Molecular basis of transparency has been a subject of intense discussion since certainproteins appear to play important roles in controlling and maintaining the transparency of a lensor a cornea. Whereas in case of lens, crystallins are responsible for its transparency; analogousto the multifunctional lens crystallins, some enzymes and proteins have been found in theunprecedented high concentrations in the corneal epithelium of many species. These proteinshave been termed as corneal crystallins. A third but semi-transparent tissue is the nictitatingmembrane in the family Ranidae. This study has been directed toward the identification of themajor protein components in anuran nictitans, supposed to be another class of crystallins,if any.Methods: Nictitans proteins were isolated and resolved on SDS-PAGE as well as on twodimensionalgel electrophoresis. Selected protein spots were excised and analyzed by linearquadrupole ion trap, MALDI-TOF/TOF and MS/MS analysis. Peptide mass fingerprintings weregenerated which were analyzed using various databases.Results: As expected, our analysis showed that nictitating membrane contains a large numberof proteins. The majority of proteins belong to structural muscles fibre proteins, keratins andcytokeratins. These are the structural component of the tissue. We have identified ribonucleaseA in unusually high concentrations, prompting us to suggest it a nictitan crystallin Vis-à-viscorneal. Possibility of many corneal crystallins, such as aldehyde dehydrogenase and enolasealso exists.Conclusions: Presence of these enzymes in nictitans has never been reported earlier ofany species studied so far and may offer a plausible explanation for their semi-transparency,in addition to protein profile. Our data suggest some of these enzymes could be classifiedas nictitans-crystallins, thus supporting the earlier idea that crystallins are essential for thetransparency of a tissue.IBP 021Comparison of Nested PCRs Against Quantiferon TB Gold IT TestRamasubban Gayathri, Kulandai Lily Therese, Mahalakshmi Balasubramanian, Jyotirmay Biswas, HajibN MadhavanL&T Microbiology Research Centre, Vision Research Foundation, Chennai, India.