ABSTRACT
Superior colliculus-pulvinar-amygdala pathway is one of the subcortical visual pathways in mammalian brain. Some recent studies suggest that this pathway is involved in processing emotion-related visual information. This review discusses the possibility that this pathway is more related to visual alert rather than simply the early visual information processing. The biological significance of this pathway is also discussed. Instead of detecting "where" or "what" the visual target is, the task of this early visual stage is to send out a warning signal, i.e., "something appears", so that the brain can be set up in a state of alert, which is important for the survival of animals. Thus, in the early visual information process, detection of new object "emerging" or "disappearing" takes priority over the acquisition of its feature information of "texture" and "shape", etc. The subcortical pathway may provide the neural basis of early visual warning in topological perception, a biological significance critical for animal survival.
ABSTRACT
Background Protein kinase B (Akt) is the center of multiple cellular signaling pathways,and it participates in the regulation of cell function,such as proliferation,migration,and metabolism of cells.Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) promotes activation of Akt and therefore triggers many signal pathways.PI3K inhibitor can silent Akt,but whether it can affect the biological behavior of lens epithelial cells (LECs) during the posterior capsular opacity (PCO) is worthy of investigation.Objective This study was to explore the effect of LY294002,a PI3K inhibitor,on Akt activation in human LECs.Methods Human LECs strain,HLEC-B3 cells,were cultured and passaged.The cells were incubated to 96-well plate for 24 hours,then LY294002 was added with the final concentration at 0,10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80 μmol/L,respectively.After incubation for 24 hours,cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) was used to detect the inhibitory rate of cell proliferation.Transforming growth factor-β2 (TGF-β2) of 10 μg/L was added in the medium of cells as TGF-β2 group,TGF-β2 + LY294002 (20 μmol/L) was used to coculture the other group of cells,and the cells without TGF-β2 and LY294002 served as the control group.Phosphorylation of Akt (p-Akt) in the cells was detected by laser scan confocal immunofluorescence microscope.The expression level of p-Akt was evaluated using Western blot.Results CCK-8 assay showed that the A value of the cells was gradually reduced with the increase of LY294002 concentration (Fgroup =9.72,P =0.00),but the A value was significant raised along with the lapse of time (Ftime =1737.54,P=0.00).Confocal immunofluorescence revealed that a little of p-Akt was expressed in the control cells.After induced by TGF-β2,lots of red fluorescence of p-Akt was seen in cells around the cell membranes.But in the TGF-β2+LY294002 co-culture cells,the fluorescence of Akt was much weaker.Western blot showed that the expression level of p-Akt was 0.91±0.08,1.48±0.13 and 0.95±0.19 in the control group,TGF-β2 group and TGF-β2 +LY294002 group,respectively,with a significant difference among the three groups (F =15.04,P =0.00).Conclusions LY294002 can inhibit the activation of Akt induced by TGF-β2.LY294002 may have utility in the prevention and treatment of PCO.
ABSTRACT
Background The pathogenesis of age-related cataract is associated with the apoptosis of lens epithelial cells (LECs) caused by oxidative stress.Previous studies showed that intracellular focal adhesion kinase (FAK) pathway can be activated by H2O2 in vitro,which induced apoptosis of cells.To investigate the effect of oxidative on FAK expression in LECs is one of important studies in the prevention of age-related cataract.Objective This study was to investigate the expression and function of FAK in human LECs treated by H2O2.Methods Human LECs strain (HLECs-B3) were cultured in vitro in the low glucose DMEM with 10％ fetal bovine serum.Different concentrations (0,30,50,70,100,300,500,700,1000 μmol/L) of H2O2 were added into the culture medium for 24 hours.The survival rate of the cells was detected by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay.Cell morphology as well as the expression and distribution of FAK in the cells were observed by immunofluorescent staining under the laser confocal microscope.Apoptosis was observed by hoechst33258 staining,and Western blot assay was used to quantitatively detect the expression and phosphorylation of FAK.Results The survival rate of the cells was (1.00±0.03) ％,(1.24±0.03)％,(1.36±0.24) ％,(0.93±0.02)％,(1.75±0.19)％,(1.37±0.18) ％,(0.64±0.01)％,(0.59±0.11)％,(0.14±0.05)％ in 0,30,50,70,100,300,500,700,1000 μmol/L H2O2 groups,with a significant difference among them (F =95.30,P =0.00).The survival rates of the cells in the below 300 μmol/L H2O2 groups were significantly higher than those in the 0 μmol/L H2O2 group,and survival rates of the cells in the above 500 μmol/L H2O2 groups were significantly lower than those in the 0 μmol/L H2O2 group(all at P＜0.05).After H2 O2 treatment for 24 hours,HLECs-B3 cells transformed from polygon shape to spindle shape and extended pseudopodiums,meanwhile the green fluorescence for FAK exhibited in the cytoplasm.Cell apoptosis was found in the 1000 μ mol/L H2O2 group.Western blot assay revealed that the expressing levels (grey scale) were significantly different among the various groups (F=28.08,P=0.00),and FAK expressing levels in the below 300 μmol/L H2O2 groups were significantly higher than those of the 0 μmol/L H2O2 group; while the expressing levels in the above 500 μmol/L H2O2 groups were lower than those of the control 0 μmol/L H202 group (all at P＜0.05).After treated by different concentrations of H2O2,the phosphorylation level of intracellular FAK (p-FAK) was significantly higher in 3 hours group than that in 30 minutes group (all at P＜0.05).Conclusions H2 O2 can affect the survival,proliferation and morphology of human LECs by activating the intracellular FAK pathway,indicating that FAK may play roles in the regulation process of cell biological behavior.
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Background Some aboard studies showed that polyatomic pathway play an important role in the microsvasculopathy of type 2 diabetes,and sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH) gene is involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy(DR).There is no relevant research at home up to now.Objective This study was to investigate the correlation of sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH) G-888C gene polymorphism with diabetic retinopathy (DR) in type 2 diabetes mellitus.Methods The SDH genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reactionreaction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in 187 patients with diabetes and 123 normal contrels.Patients were divided into two groups depending on the presence or absence of DR(DR:n=118;NDR:n=69).The frequencies of SDH genotype and allele were assayed and compared among these groups.This study was approved by Ethic Committee of Guangdong General Hospital.Written informed consent was obtained from each individual prior to any relevant medical procedure.Results The disease course in the DR group was significantly longer than that in NDR group(t=2.070,P=0.042),and other clinical features in both groups were non-significant (all P>0.05).The genotype frequencies in the DR group,NDR group and normal control group were 24.6%,8.7% and 8.1%,respectively,and frequencies of the G allele were 42.4%,25.4% and 29.7%,showing statistically significant differences among these three groups.The GG genotype and G allele frequencies were significantly higher in the DR group than those in the NDR group and normal control group (GG:P=0.007,P=0.001;G:P=0.001,P=0.004).There were no significant differences in the frequencies of the GG genotype and G allele between the NDB group and normal control group ( P>0. 05) as well as the proliferative DR group and non-proliferative DR group (P>0.05).Conclusion SDH G-888C gene polymorphism is associated with the development of diabetic retinopathy in southern Chinese.
ABSTRACT
Costimulatory signals have become a hot field in immunological researches. As co-inhibitory molecules, programmed death-1 ( PD-1) and its ligands (PD-1/PD-L) have been demonstrated to play an important role in autoimmune disease, organ transplant rejection, microorganism infection, tumor immune escapes etc. . In recent years,some studies about PD-1/PD-L pathway in ophthalmology have been curried out and reported. Some changes were found in PD-1/PD-L pathway, such as ocular immunologic diseases, ocular infectious diseases, ocular tumors, immune privilege in ocular tissues and so on. Through the research on PD-1/PD-L pathway,we can further understand the pathogenesis of some ocular diseases and find new methods for their prevention and treatments. This article reviewed the recent advances in PD-1/PD-L pathway in ophthalmological physiopathology.