Article
Cell Biology
Ao-Wang Qiu, Da-Rui Huang, Bin Li, Yuan Fang, Wei-Wei Zhang, Qing-Huai Liu
Summary: The study suggests that IL-17A plays an important role in diabetic retinopathy by promoting retinal ganglion cell death through retinal Muller cell mediation. Therefore, antagonizing IL-17RA on retinal Muller cells may prevent retinal neuronal death and slow down the progression of DR.
CELL DEATH & DISEASE
(2021)
Article
Cell Biology
Ye Zhang, Tingting Li, Xuan Cai, Da Long, Xiangning Wang, Chang Liu, Qiang Wu
Summary: This study investigated the role of succinylome in diabetic retinopathy (DR) and identified the key factor in this process. The researchers found differentially succinylated proteins in the vitreous humor samples of DR patients, with the succinylation of the K108 site of optineurin being enriched in the defense response. They also demonstrated that OPTN undergoes lysine succinylation in the retinas of rats with DR and that Sirt5 can desuccinylate OPTN K108, thereby improving autophagic flux blockade under high-glucose conditions.
CELL DEATH DISCOVERY
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Anita Desiani, Erwin, Bambang Suprihatin, Filda Efriliyanti, Muhammad Arhami, Emy Setyaningsih
Summary: This study proposes a VG-DropDNet architecture that combines VGG, DenseNet, and U-Net for blood vessels retinal segmentation. The experimental results on DRIVE and STARE datasets show that VG-DropDNet performs well and is robust in blood vessel segmentation.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Hiromasa Hirai, Mariko Yamashita, Masanori Matsumoto, Takeyuki Nishiyama, Daishi Wada, Naoko Okabe, Yutaro Mizusawa, Hironobu Jimura, Tetsuo Ueda, Nahoko Ogata
Summary: This study investigated the association between retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and von Willebrand factor (VWF), as well as the changes in VWF levels during anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment. The results showed a negative correlation between VWF antigen and central choroidal thickness in patients with branch RVO. After anti-VEGF treatment, VWF antigen levels significantly decreased, while ADAMTS13 activity showed no significant difference. These findings suggest that measuring VWF may be useful for evaluating disease activity and prognosis.
Article
Cell Biology
Ryo Ichijo, Koichiro Maki, Mio Kabata, Teruasa Murata, Arata Nagasaka, Seiichiro Ishihara, Hisashi Haga, Tetsuya Honda, Taiji Adachi, Takuya Yamamoto, Fumiko Toyoshima
Summary: Stem cell loss due to tissue deterioration associated with aging is a complex process involving genomic and oxidative stress-induced DNA damage. This study reveals that the involution of skin vasculature leads to dermal stiffening, which affects the differentiation and fragility of interfollicular epidermal stem cells (IFESCs) in aged mouse skin. The dysregulation of IFESCs in aged skin is correlated with prolonged calcium influx mediated by the mechanoresponsive ion channel Piezo1. The findings suggest that the vasculature plays a crucial role in maintaining the stem cell microenvironment and provide a potential mechanobiology-based therapeutic strategy against skin disorders in aging.
Article
Ophthalmology
Ruth A. Frey, Lindsey M. Barrett, Lauren Parkin, Brittany Blakeley, Murielle Alund, Gregory Byford, Abigail Euhus, Christine Tsarnas, Janette W. Boughman, Deborah L. Stenkamp
Summary: This study found that damage to the visual system in wild populations of threespine stickleback fish resulted in regenerative responses, similar to what has been observed in captive zebrafish. The presence of eye flukes and their consumption of eye tissue contributed to the damage, but the stickleback retina displayed a proliferative response and laminar fusions, indicating a potential regenerative ability.
EXPERIMENTAL EYE RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Ophthalmology
Miklos D. Resch, Aniko Balogh, Tilmann Kurth, Zoltan Z. Nagy, Delia Cabrera DeBuc, Andras Papp
Summary: Using OCT-A, we found that the macular vessel density in the superficial retinal plexus was lower in exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients after one year and long-term anti-VEGF treatment. However, there were no significant changes in the vascular density of the parafoveal and whole areas of the deep retinal plexus.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Eun-Jin Lee, Mengmei Zheng, Cheryl Mae Craft, Shinwu Jeong
Summary: The study investigates the expression patterns of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 in MIO-M1 cells under inflammatory and oxidative stress conditions. IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha have a mild pro-survival effect on cells, leading to imbalanced secretion of MMP-9 and TIMP-1. H2O2 treatment has little impact on secretion but alters cell morphology and increases TIMP-1 speckles in a dose-dependent manner. Intracellular TIMP-1 aggregation occurs in the cytoplasm with IL-1 beta treatment, indicating that TIMP-1 is a target of proinflammatory and oxidative insults in MGCs.
Article
Ophthalmology
Richard Stodtmeister, Vivien Mielke, Dirk Sandner
Summary: The study investigated the impact of diabetes-specific changes and accompanying diseases on oxygen saturation in 203 diabetic patients' eyes, finding that some of these factors may influence oximetry measurements.
KLINISCHE MONATSBLATTER FUR AUGENHEILKUNDE
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Azam Moosavi, Natalia Figueiredo, Prateek Prasanna, Sunil K. Srivastava, Sumit Sharma, Anant Madabhushi, Justis P. Ehlers
Summary: Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) and macular edema secondary to retinal occlusion (RVO) are the two most common retinal vascular causes of visual impairment and leading cause of worldwide vision loss. The study aimed to evaluate new computer extracted features relating to morphology, spatial architecture, and tortuosity of vessels and leakages from baseline ultra-widefield fluorescein angiography (UWFA) images. The proximity of leakage nodes to major and minor eye vessels as well as local vasculature tortuosity in the vicinity of the leakages were found to be the most significant and predictive biomarkers related to treatment response.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
(2021)
Article
Ophthalmology
Claudio Azzolini, Simone Donati, Giovanni Micheloni, Vittoria Moretti, Roberto Valli, Francesco Acquati, Lucy Costantino, Fulvio Ferrara, Davide Borroni, Elias Premi, Francesco Testa, Francesca Simonelli, Giovanni Porta
Summary: The study evaluated the effects of simulating hypoxic stimulus on a set of genes related to eye morphogenesis and cell differentiation. Results showed that while Otx1 and Otx2 did not show significant changes in expression levels during treatment, VEGF-A and TP73 genes were significantly regulated during both the hypoxic stimulus and recovery stages.
JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Yanyan Fu, Tu Hu, Qianyue Zhang, Shuhan Meng, Ying Lu, Aiqun Xiang, Yewei Yin, Yuanjun Li, Jiayu Song, Dan Wen
Summary: This study established a rat model of acute retinal ischemia/reperfusion to observe morphological changes in neurons and synapses in the visual pathways post-injury, revealing transneuronal degeneration as a key factor in the progressive deterioration of visual function following injury removal.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Huili Li, Ming Zhang, Dahong Wang, Guojun Dong, Zhiwei Chen, Suilin Li, Xiaohong Sun, Min Zeng, Haiyang Liao, Huifang Chen, Shengyan Xiao, Xiaodan Li
Summary: The clinical and animal experiments indicate that low-intensity blue light can cause structural and functional damage to the retina, warranting attention to chronic damage caused by low-intensity light.
BIOMED RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Tamar Licht, Tirzah Kreisel, Yoav Biala, Sandesh Mohan, Yoel Yaari, Andrey Anisimov, Kari Alitalo, Eli Keshet
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2020)
Letter
Ophthalmology
Arina Korneva, Julie Schaub, Joan Jefferys Erys, Elizabeth Kimball, Mary Pease, Manasi Nawathe, Thomas V. Johnson, Ian Pitha, Harry Quigley
EXPERIMENTAL EYE RESEARCH
(2020)
Article
Ophthalmology
Arina Korneva, Julie Schaub, Joan Jefferys, Elizabeth Kimball, Mary Ellen Pease, Manasi Nawathe, Thomas Johnson, Ian Pitha, Harry Quigley
EXPERIMENTAL EYE RESEARCH
(2020)
Article
Biology
Tamar Licht, Esther Sasson, Batia Bell, Myriam Grunewald, Saran Kumar, Tirzah Kreisel, Ayal Ben-Zvi, Eli Keshet
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Elizabeth Kimball, Julie Schaub, Sarah Quillen, Casey Keuthan, Mary Ellen Pease, Arina Korneva, Harry Quigley
Summary: The study found that the lack of aquaporin 4 does not have a protective or detrimental effect on the response to intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation. The minimal presence of aquaporin 4 in the unmyelinated optic nerve may be a crucial aspect of the regionally specific phenotype of astrocytes in the mouse optic nerve head.
Article
Cell Biology
Netta Barak, Roni Ben-Ami, Tal Sido, Amir Perri, Aviad Shtoyer, Mila Rivkin, Tamar Licht, Ayelet Peretz, Judith Magenheim, Irit Fogel, Ayalah Livneh, Yutti Daitch, Esther Oiknine-Djian, Gil Benedek, Yuval Dor, Dana G. Wolf, Moran Yassour
Summary: Pooling multiple swab samples for SARS-CoV-2 testing can save 76% of RNA extraction and RT-PCR tests, with higher efficiency and sensitivity than expected, even in populations with varying prevalence rates.
SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Henry T. Hsueh, Yoo-Chun Kim, Ian Pitha, Matthew D. Shin, Cynthia A. Berlinicke, Renee Ti Chou, Elizabeth Kimball, Julie Schaub, Sarah Quillen, Kirby T. Leo, Hyounkoo Han, Amy Xiao, Youngwook Kim, Matthew Appell, Usha Rai, HyeYoung Kwon, Patricia Kolodziejski, Laolu Ogunnaike, Nicole M. Anders, Avelina Hemingway, Joan L. Jefferys, Abhijit A. Date, Charles Eberhart, Thomas Johnson, Harry A. Quigley, Donald J. Zack, Justin Hanes, Laura M. Ensign
Summary: Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, with elevated intraocular pressure being a major risk factor. While current pharmaceutical interventions focus on lowering IOP, the progression of retinal ganglion cell degeneration may continue. This study explores a novel ion complexation approach for formulating microcrystals containing a protein kinase inhibitor, sunitinib, to enhance survival of RGCs with subconjunctival injection, providing sustained therapeutic effects.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
M. Grunewald, S. Kumar, H. Sharife, E. Volinsky, A. Gileles-Hillel, T. Licht, A. Permyakova, L. Hinden, S. Azar, Y. Friedmann, P. Kupetz, R. Tzuberi, A. Anisimov, K. Alitalo, M. Horwitz, S. Leebhoff, O. Z. Khoma, R. Hlushchuk, V Djonov, R. Abramovitch, J. Tam, E. Keshet
Summary: The study reveals that insufficiency in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling may drive physiological aging across multiple organ systems in aged mice, while increasing VEGF signaling can prevent this and lead to improved organ function, extended lifespan, and better overall health.
Article
Cell Biology
Joseph L. Mertz, Srinivasa R. Sripathi, Xue Yang, Lijun Chen, Noriko Esumi, Hui Zhang, Donald J. Zack
Summary: Studying kinase/phosphatase signaling cascades in induced EMT of RPE can provide insights into the pathways mediating this process, with liver hyperplasia and HGF-MET signaling showing the highest enrichment. HGF and epidermal growth factor signaling pathways, inhibited by EMT induction, play a role in regulating the RPE transcriptional profile.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yuan Rui, David R. Wilson, Stephany Y. Tzeng, Hannah M. Yamagata, Deepti Sudhakar, Marranne Conge, Cynthia A. Berlinicke, Donald J. Zack, Anthony Tuesca, Jordan J. Green
Summary: Nanoparticle-based mRNA therapeutics show great promise, but cellular internalization and endosomal escape pose challenges for cytosolic delivery. Researchers developed a dual nanoparticle uptake and endosomal disruption assay, which can detect cellular internalization and endosomal disruption. The study found that this assay has higher predictive capacity for mRNA delivery compared to conventional polymer and nanoparticle characteristics.
Article
Cell Biology
Sarah K. Rempel, Madalynn J. Welch, Allison L. Ludwig, M. Joseph Phillips, Yochana Kancherla, Donald J. Zack, David M. Gamm, Timothy M. Gomez
Summary: Early-born photoreceptors exhibit autonomous axon extension from dynamic terminals, while late-born photoreceptors lose dynamic terminals but can still extend axons by attaching to non-photoreceptor cells.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Elizabeth C. Kimball, Sarah Quillen, Mary E. Pease, Casey Keuthan, Aru Nagalingam, Donald J. Zack, Thomas Johnson, Harry A. Quigley
Summary: Aquaporin 4 is not found in astrocytes in the rodent optic nerve head, despite being highly expressed in the retina and myelinated optic nerve.
Article
Cell Biology
Louis-Philippe Croteau, Michael L. Risner, Lauren K. Wareham, Nolan R. McGrady, Xitiz Chamling, Donald J. Zack, David J. Calkins
Summary: Cell replacement therapies using human embryonic stem cell and induced pluripotent stem-derived retinal ganglion cells (hRGCs) hold promise in achieving functional recovery in neurodegenerative optic neuropathies diseases. However, previous transplantation studies have shown limited success in terms of cell survival and integration in the host retina. In this study, a transplantation assay involving hRGCs and mouse retina explants was designed to overcome physical barriers and evaluate strategies for optimizing integration of donor cells. Results showed that supplementing cultures with brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and forskolin improved hRGC integrity, neurite outgrowth, and invasion of mouse explants.
Article
Ophthalmology
Carolyn Guan, Mary Ellen Pease, Sarah Quillen, Yik Tung Tracy Ling, Ximin Li, Elizabeth Kimball, Thomas Johnson, Thao D. Nguyen, Harry A. Quigley
Summary: This study quantitatively measured the changes in lamina cribrosa cell and connective tissue structure in human glaucoma eyes. The results showed that in the pores of the lamina cribrosa, the proportionate area of both GFAP and F-actin processes was significantly lower in glaucoma eyes compared to controls, and the nuclei in glaucoma specimens were rounder. Furthermore, wider F-actin process width, narrower average lamina cribrosa beam width, and increased nuclear count per square millimeter were associated with worse glaucoma damage.
INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE
(2022)