Journal d'histologie moléculaire et de physiologie médicale

Decorin in Orbital Fibroblasts as a Possible Target in the Pathogenesis of Graves' Ophthalmopathy

Abstract

Heinig L, Manthe K and Oelkrug C

Background: The initiation of Graves’ ophthalmopathy (GO), an orbital manifestation of Graves’ disease (GD), still remains unclear. Whether thyroid stimulating hormone receptor (TSHr) plays a pivotal role is still debatable. In context, fibroblast-derived proteins are currently under intense consideration.

Results: Current study was designed to evaluate whether decorin, a 38 kDa proteoglycan, could be a plausible target in the pathogenesis of GO utilising in silico methods for protein and sequence analysis. This fibroblast-derived protein is known to have conserved leucine rich repeats (LRR) and is constitutively expressed in fibroblasts and tissues of mesenchymal origin, unlike TSHr. Furthermore, decorin expression in orbital fibroblasts (OF), the target tissue implicated in GO, has not been investigated yet.

Conclusion: For the first time, this study reports a structural similarity of decorin to TSHr-α sub-unit. Thereby, indicating a possible involvement in GO pathogenesis. In conclusion, the collated data reported herein, is suggestive of decorin as a new candidate underlying GO pathogenesis.