To detect the expression of microRNA-146a (miR-146a) and tumor necrosis factor receptor associated factor-6 (TRAF6) in conjunctival epithelial cells of perimenopausal patients with dry eyes and explore their effects.

From October 2017 to December 2019, 86 cases of perimenopausal dry eye patients (observation group) and 90 cases of healthy physical examinees (control group) were selected. The conjunctival epithelial cells of the patients in two groups were collected, the expression of miR-146a, TRAF6, interleukin (IL) - 1β, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) mRNAs were detected by quantitative real-time PCR (RT- qPCR) ; the expression of TRAF6 protein was detected by western blot (WB) ; Pearson correlation was used to analyze the correlation between the levels of miR-146a and TRAF6 mRNA, and the correlations between them and the levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α mRNA; and multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the factors influencing dry eye in perimenopause.

Compared with the control group, the expression levels of miR-146a (1.09±0.06 vs 1.53±0.27) , IL-1β (1.02±0.11 vs 1.52±0.17) , IL-6 (1.04±0.03 vs 1.31±0.15) and TNF-α mRNAs (1.01±0.05 vs 1.28±0.15) in the conjunctival epithelial cells of the observation group were significantly higher (P < 0.05) , and the expression levels of TRAF6 mRNA (1.03±0.04 vs 0.62±0.15) and TRAF6 protein (0.65±0.07 vs 0.38±0.05) were significantly lower (P < 0.05) ; there was a significantly negative correlation between the expression of miR-146a and TRAF6, IL- 1β, IL-6, TNF-α mRNAs (r = -0.455, -0.416, -0.441, -0.511, P < 0.05) , and there was a significantly positive correlation between the expression of TRAF6 mRNA and IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α mRNAs (r = 0.442, 0.483, 0.465, P < 0.05) ; miR-146a in conjunctival epithelial cells was a protective factor of perimenopausal dry eye (P < 0.05) , and TRAF6 and IL-6 mRNA were independent risk factors for perimenopausal dry eye (P < 0.05) .

miR-146a is up-regulated and TRAF6 is down-regulated in conjunctival epithelial cells of perimenopausal dry eye patients, which may be involved in the process of disease regulation by regulating inflammatory reaction.