Relationship between vimentin and glucocorticoid-induced cataract

Abstract

Long-term use of systemic or topical glucocorticoid can cause posterior subcapsular opacities(PSO), named glucocorticoid-induced cataract(GIC). There are many hypotheses on the pathogenesis of GIC. However, no one has well explained the formation of PSO, which leads to no effective approaches in the prevention and/or treatment. A new opinion is that hormones might affect lens epithelial cells through GR-mediated vimentin changes, which eventually result in the formation of GIC. Therefore, the association between vimentin and lens epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation, maybe a new direction for further studies in the pathogenesis of GIC.

Keywords

• vimentin
• glucocorticoid
• glucocorticoid-induced cataract
• lens