{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,11]],"date-time":"2026-07-11T18:11:55Z","timestamp":1783793515799,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,16]],"date-time":"2024-08-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1723766400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Med."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background and purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>Nowadays, myopia has become a highly prevalent disease globally, especially in East Asia. Epidemiological studies have found that there may be sex differences in the occurrence and progression of myopia, with females having a higher incidence of myopia and higher risk of myopia progression. The purpose of this study was to explore the sex differences in myopic cornea using corneal stroma removed by small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) surgery.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>The corneal stroma of females with high myopia (FH) and males with high myopia (MH) were subjected to proteomic assays. Proteomic-related data were statistically analyzed using software such as MaxQuan, KAAS, Proteome Discovery, etc. The total number of proteins in the cornea and the proteins specifically expressed in the two groups were counted, and the differentially expressed proteins in the two groups were identified by expression fold change &amp;gt;2 and <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>-value &amp;lt;0.05, and volcano plots were constructed, and functional enrichment analysis, subcellular organelle analysis, and molecular interaction were implemented.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Ten samples from each group were analyzed. Twenty-seven proteins were down-regulated and 27 proteins were up-regulated in the FH group, of which 23 proteins were up-regulated in the range of 2\u201310-fold and 4 proteins were up-regulated in the range of &amp;gt;10-fold. Comparative proteomic analysis of the cornea of male and female patients with high myopia revealed that the expression of corneal extracellular matrix and collagen I, III, V, and VIII-associated proteins were increased in the cornea of female patients, and the transforming growth factor-\u03b2 (TGF-\u03b2)\/Smad pathway was an important pathway obtained by functional analysis.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Comparative proteomic analysis of cornea from male and female patients with high myopia revealed increased expression of proteins related to extracellular matrix and collagen I, III, V, and VIII in female patients, and the TGF-\u03b2\/Smad pathway was an important pathway obtained from the functional analysis, suggesting that extracellular matrix remodeling and collagen fiber synthesis may be more active in the cornea of female patients.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmed.2024.1406748","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,16]],"date-time":"2024-08-16T04:29:16Z","timestamp":1723782556000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Proteomic analysis reveals key differences in pro-stromal corneal tissue between highly myopic males and females"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Ge","family":"Cui","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yu","family":"Di","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shan","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Youxin","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ying","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Di","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"8","DOI":"10.1167\/iovs.63.1.8","article-title":"Annual incidences and progressions of myopia and high myopia in Chinese schoolchildren based on a 5-year cohort study","volume":"63","author":"Li","year":"2022","journal-title":"Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e1976","DOI":"10.1097\/MD.0000000000001976","article-title":"Prevalence of myopia in France: a cross-sectional analysis","volume":"94","author":"Matamoros","year":"2015","journal-title":"Medicine"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"31","DOI":"10.1186\/s40662-021-00255-1","article-title":"Design, methodology, and baseline of whole city-million scale children and adolescents myopia survey (CAMS) in Wenzhou, China","volume":"8","author":"Xu","year":"2021","journal-title":"Eye Vis"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"745","DOI":"10.21037\/atm-20-8069","article-title":"The associations of high academic performance with childhood ametropia prevalence and myopia development in China","volume":"9","author":"Yang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Ann Transl Med"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"735","DOI":"10.1016\/S0002-9394(02)01689-6","article-title":"The progression of refractive error in school-age children: Shunyi district, China","volume":"134","author":"Zhao","year":"2002","journal-title":"Am J Ophthalmol"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"69","DOI":"10.1016\/j.exer.2014.08.001","article-title":"Regulation of corneal stroma extracellular matrix assembly","volume":"133","author":"Chen","year":"2015","journal-title":"Exp Eye Res"},{"key":"ref7","first-page":"1749","article-title":"Human corneal fibrillogenesis. 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