TGFβ1-Induced Fibrotic Responses of Conjunctival Fibroblasts through the Wnt/β-Catenin/CRYAB Signaling Pathway

Conjunctival fibrosis is a common postoperative complication of glaucoma filtration surgery, resulting in uncontrolled intraocular pressure and surgery failure. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying conjunctival fibrosis and to explore novel pharmacologic anti-fibrosis therapies for glaucoma filtration surgery. Herein, the 4-dimensional data-independent acquisition (4D-DIA) quantitative proteomic results, coupled with experimental data, revealed the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway in transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1–induced human conjunctival fibroblasts (HConFs). Treatment with ICG-001, a Wnt/β-catenin inhibitor, effectively inhibited cell proliferation and migration in TGFβ1-treated HConFs. ICG-001 treatment alleviated the increased generation of extracellular matrix proteins induced by TGFβ1. In addition, ICG-001 reduced the expression level of α smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and inhibited cell contractility in TGFβ1-treated HConFs. Proteomics data further suggested that αB-crystallin (CRYAB) was a downstream target of Wnt/β-catenin, which was up-regulated by TGFβ1 and down-regulated by ICG-001. Immunoblotting assay also indicated that ICG-001 reduced the expressions of ubiquitin and β-catenin in TGFβ1-treated HConFs, implying that CRYAB stabilized β-catenin by inhibiting its ubiquitination degradation. Exogenous CRYAB promoted cell viability, increased extracellular matrix protein levels, and up-regulated α-SMA expression of HConFs under TGFβ1 stimulation. CRYAB rescued TGFβ1-induced fibrotic responses that were suppressed by ICG-001. In conclusion, this study elucidates the regulatory mechanism of the Wnt/β-catenin/CRYAB pathway in conjunctival fibrosis, offering promising therapeutic targets for mitigating bleb scarring after glaucoma filtration surgery.