BackgroundAlthough thyroid eye disease is a common complication of Graves’ disease, the pathogenesis of the orbital disease is poorly understood. Most authorities implicate the immune response as an important causal factor. We sought to clarify pathogenesis by using gene expression microarray.MethodsAn international consortium of ocular pathologists and orbital surgeons contributed formalin fixed orbital biopsies. RNA was extracted from orbital tissue from 20 healthy controls, 25 patients with thyroid eye disease (TED), 25 patients with nonspecific orbital inflammation (NSOI), 7 patients with sarcoidosis and 6 patients with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). Tissue was divided into a discovery set and a validation set. Gene expression was quantified using Affymetrix U133 Plus 2.0 microarrays which include 54,000 probe sets.ResultsPrincipal component analysis showed that gene expression from tissue from patients with TED more closely resembled gene expression from healthy control tissue in comparison to gene expression characteristic of sarcoidosis, NSOI, or granulomatosis with polyangiitis. Unsupervised cluster dendrograms further indicated the similarity between TED and healthy controls. Heat maps based on gene expression for cytokines, chemokines, or their receptors showed that these inflammatory markers were associated with NSOI, sarcoidosis, or GPA much more frequently than with TED.ConclusionThis is the first study to compare gene expression in TED to gene expression associated with other causes of exophthalmos. The juxtaposition shows that inflammatory markers are far less characteristic of TED relative to other orbital inflammatory diseases.

ObjectiveIgG4-related disease is an emerging clinical entity which frequently involves tissue within the orbit. In order to appreciate the implications of IgG4 immunostaining, we analyzed gene expression and the prevalence of IgG4- immunostaining among subjects with orbital inflammatory diseases.MethodsWe organized an international consortium to collect orbital biopsies from 108 subjects including 22 with no known orbital disease, 42 with nonspecific orbital inflammatory disease (NSOI), 26 with thyroid eye disease (TED), 12 with sarcoidosis, and 6 with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). Lacrimal gland and orbital adipose tissue biopsies were immunostained for IgG4 or IgG secreting plasma cells. RNA transcripts were quantified by Affymetrix arrays.ResultsNone of the healthy controls or subjects with TED had substantial IgG4 staining. Among the 63 others, the prevalence of significant IgG4-immunostaining ranged from 11 to 39% depending on the definition for significant. IgG4 staining was detectable in the majority of tissues from subjects with GPA and less commonly in tissue from subjects with sarcoidosis or NSOI. The detection of IgG4+ cells correlated with inflammation in the lacrimal gland based on histology. IgG4 staining tissue expressed an increase in transcripts associated with inflammation, especially B cell-related genes. Functional annotation analysis confirmed this.ConclusionIgG4+ plasma cells are common in orbital tissue from patients with sarcoidosis, GPA, or NSOI. Even using the low threshold of 10 IgG4+ cells/high powered field, IgG4 staining correlates with increased inflammation in the lacrimal gland based on histology and gene expression.

Background/aims To clarify the pathogenesis of fibrosis in inflammatory orbital diseases, we analyzed the gene expression in orbital biopsies and compared our results to those reported for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Methods We collected 140 biopsies from 138 patients (58 lacrimal gland; 82 orbital fat). Diagnoses included healthy controls (n=27), nonspecific orbital inflammation (NSOI) (n=61), thyroid eye disease (TED) (n=29), sarcoidosis (n=14), and granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) (n=7). Fibrosis was scored on a zero to three scale by two expert, ophthalmic pathologists. Gene expression was quantified using Affymetrix U133 plus 2.0 microarray. Results Within orbital fat, fibrosis was greatest among subjects with GPA (2.75±0.46) and significantly increased in tissue from subjects with GPA, NSOI, or sarcoidosis (p<0.01), but not for TED, compared to healthy controls (1.13±0.69). For lacrimal gland, the average score among controls (1.36±0.48) did not differ statistically from any of the 4 disease groups. Seventy-three probe sets identified transcripts correlating with fibrosis in orbital fat (false discovery rate < 0.05) after accounting for batch effects, disease type, age and sex. Transcripts with increased expression included fibronectin, lumican, thrombospondin, and collagen types I and VIII, each of which has been reported upregulated in pulmonary fibrosis. Conclusion A pathologist's recognition of fibrosis in orbital tissue correlates well with increased expression of transcripts considered essential in fibrosis. Many of the transcripts implicated in orbital fibrosis have been previously implicated in pulmonary fibrosis. TED differs from other causes of orbital fat inflammation in that fibrosis is not a major component. Marked fibrosis is less common in the lacrimal gland compared to orbital adipose tissue.

IMPORTANCE Although a variety of well-characterized diseases, such as sarcoidosis and granulomatosis with polyangiitis, affect the lacrimal gland, many patients with dacryoadenitis are diagnosed as having nonspecific orbital inflammation (NSOI) on the basis of histology and systemic disease evaluation. The ability to further classify the disease in these patients should facilitate selection of effective therapies.OBJECTIVE To test the a priori hypothesis that gene expression profiles would complement clinical and histopathologic evaluations in identifying well-characterized diseases and in subdividing NSOI into clinically relevant groups. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSIn this cohort study, gene expression levels in biopsy specimens of inflamed and control lacrimal glands were measured with microarrays. Stained sections of the same biopsy specimens were used for evaluation of histopathology. Tissue samples of patients were obtained from oculoplastic surgeons at 7 international centers representing 4 countries (United States,

Purpose:To describe six cases of anterior orbital and adnexal amyloidosis and to report on proteomic analysis to characterize the nature of amyloid in archived biopsies in two cases.Materials and Methods:The clinical features, radiological findings, pathology, and outcome of six patients with anterior orbit and adnexal amyloidosis were retrieved from the medical records. The biochemical nature of the amyloid was determined using liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy archived paraffin-embedded tissue in two cases.Results:Of the six cases, three had unilateral localized anterior orbit and lacrimal gland involvement. Four of the six patients were female with an average duration of 12.8 years from the time of onset to presentation eyelid infiltration by amyloid caused ptosis in five cases. CT scan in patients with lacrimal gland involvement (n = 3) demonstrated calcified deformable anterior orbital masses and on pathological exmaintionamyloid and calcific deposits replaced the lacrimal gland acini. Ptosis repair was performed in three patients with good outcomes. One patient required repeated debulking of the mass and one patient had recurrenct disease. Proteomic analysis revealed polyclonal IgG-associated amyloid deposition in one patient and AL kappa amyloid in the second patient.Conclusion:Amyloidosis of the anterior orbit and lacrimal gland can present with a wide spectrum of findings with good outcomes after surgical excision. The nature of amyloid material can be precisely determined in archival pathology blocks using diagnostic proteomic analysis.