Surgical treatment of severe anterior capsular organized hard core cataract: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Complicated cataract surgery is challenging, especially in cases of hard nuclear cataract with severe anterior capsule organization. It is important to avoid the risk of surgery and improve the surgical skills of surgeons. CASE SUMMARY: A 60-year-old man presented with severe cataract and visual impairment. The anterior capsule of the lens was irregularly organized and pulled to the surrounding capsule, and white porcelain organized cord and brown-black lens nucleus were clearly visible. In phacoemulsification, maintaining the anterior capsule round and intact plays a key role in a successful surgery. In this case, if the conventional capsule treatment method was used, the anterior capsule would be torn. Therefore, we adopted a segmented anterior capsule treatment method, and a blasting method to release energy when dealing with the lens nucleus, and achieved good surgical results. CONCLUSION: Complicated cataract surgery is challenging and requires precise skills. Operation plans should be made reasonably to predict the risk of surgery, and improve the visual quality of the patients.

Repression of microRNA-21 inhibits retinal vascular endothelial cell growth and angiogenesis via PTEN dependent-PI3K/Akt/VEGF signaling pathway in diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a microvascular complication of diabetes and one of the most common causes of blindness in active stage. This study is performed to explore the effects of microRNA-21 (miR-21) on retinal vascular endothelial cell (RVEC) viability and angiogenesis in rats with DR via the phosphatidylinositiol 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt)/vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling pathway by binding to phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN). Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were used for establishment of DR models. Target relationship between miR-21 and PTEN was assessed by bioinformatics prediction in combination with dual-luciferase reporter gene assay. Identification of expression of miR-21, PTEN and PI3K/Akt/VEGF signaling pathway-related genes in the retinal tissues was then conducted. In order to assess the contributory role of miR-21 in DR, the RVECs were transfected with mimic or inhibitor of miR-21, or siRNA-PTEN, followed by the detection of expression of PTEN and PI3K/Akt/VEGF-related genes, as well as the measurement of cell viability, cell cycle and apoptosis. Increased expression of miR-21 and PI3K/Akt/VEGF related genes, along with a reduced expression of PTEN was observed in the retinal tissues of DR rats. PTEN was targeted and negatively regulated by miR-21, while the PI3K/Akt/VEGF signaling pathway was activated by miR-21. RVECs transfected with miR-21 inhibitor exhibited promoted viability and angiogenesis, and inhibited apoptosis. To conclude, our results indicated that miR-21 overexpression could potentially stimulate RVEC viability and angiogenesis in rats with DR through activation of the PI3K/Akt/VEGF signaling pathway via repressing PTEN expression, highlighting the potential of miR-21 as a target for DR treatment.

IL-17 produced by Th17 cells alleviates the severity of fungal keratitis by suppressing CX43 expression in corneal peripheral vascular endothelial cells.

Fungal keratitis is a relatively common ocular disease requiring positive medical management combined with surgical intervention. Interleukin-17 (IL-17) was reported to promote the activation and mobilization of neutrophile granulocyte to foci of inflammation. This study investigated the effect of IL-17 production from Th17 cells on the progression of fungal keratitis. A mouse model of fungal keratitis induced by Candida albicans was successfully constructed to detect infiltration of inflammatory cells in corneal tissues by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining and immunohistochemistry. Fungal load capacity of mouse cornea was also detected. The regulatory role of IL-17 in fungal keratitis with the involvement of CX43 was investigated with the relevant expression of inflammatory factors detected and activation of vascular endothelial cells assessed. Furthermore, in vivo experiment was also performed to confirm the role of CX43 in keratitis. Mice with fungal keratitis showed increased level of inflammatory cytokines and infiltration of inflammatory cells. Silencing IL-17 in Th17 cells and overexpressing CX43 could inhibit the activation of vascular endothelial cells. Besides, CX43 knockdown in vivo alleviated fungal keratitis in mice. The possible mechanism of the above findings could be IL-17 inhibiting the level of CX43 through the AKT signaling pathway. Taken together, IL-17 could inhibit the occurrence and development of fungal keratitis by suppressing CX43 expression through the AKT signaling pathway. Therefore, this study provides a potential target for the treatment of fungal keratitis.

[Research on the Spectral Characteristic of Typical Vegetation in Desert-Oasis Crisscross Zone].

Vegetations in desert play key a role in protecting eco-environment, especially in desert-oasis crisscross zone. Vegetations are of great significance in soil conservation and improving the shear resistance of land. Therefore, they can help to prevent soil from wind erosion and keep land from desertification. Analyzing the spectral data of typical vegetation in desert-oasis crisscross zone by using the hyper spectral technology can be a guidance for remote sensing vegetation classification and serve as the basis for remote vegetation monitoring. In our research, four kinds of typical vegetations have been selected: cotton, tamarix chinensis, Haloxylon ammodendron and Halostachys caspica. The researcher collected series of spectral data of different typical vegetations under different conditions with the help of Field Spec 4 high resolution spectrometer. The collected data was classified, flitted and synthesized with two kinds of transform methods: FDR (First Order Derivative Reflectance) and RLR (Reciprocal Logarithmic Reflectance) transformation. And then three kinds of data were used in further research to analyze the sensitive spectrum band and expression of different vegetation. The result shows that the spectral curve of different vegetations show the same changing trend; different vegetation show different expression in "red edge" with the near infrared band of 780~1 260 nm. The visible light absorption of vegetation is very strong, and the difference of absorption extent causes peaks and troughs. The "red edge" characteristic is unique, which will carry the proper information of certain vegetation, and the result of different kinds of transformation show that FDR can express the red edge characteristic much better than other ways. At last, three ways were used to calculate NDVI, using the original spectral data, transforming spectral data with FDR and transforming spectral data with RLR. Result shows that the NDVI , which calculated by RLR can help to distinguish the type of vegetation with higher accuracy is.

[Dynamic changes in vegetation NDVI from 1982 to 2012 and its responses to climate change and human activities in Xinjiang, China].

Vegetation plays an important role in regulating the terrestrial carbon balance and the climate system, and also overwhelmingly dominates the provisioning of ecosystem services. Therefore, it has significance to monitor the growth of vegetation. Based on AVHRR GIMMS NDVI and MODIS NDVI datasets, we analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of change in NDVI and their linkage with climate change and human activity from 1982 to 2012 in the typical arid region, Xinjiang of northwestern China, at pixel and regional scales. At regional scale, although a statistically significant positive trend of growing season NDVI with a rate of 4.09 x 10⁻4· a⁻¹ was found during 1982-2012, there were two distinct periods with opposite trends in growing season NDVI before and after 1998, respectively. NDVI in growing season first significantly increased with a rate of 10 x 10⁻4· a⁻¹ from 1982 to 1998, and then decreased with a rate of -3 x 10⁻4· a⁻¹ from 1998 to 2012. The change in trend of NDVI from increase to decrease mainly occurred in summer, followed by autumn, and the reversal wasn't observed in spring. At pixel scale, the NDVI in farmland significantly increased; the NDVI changes in the growing season and all seasons showed polarization: Areas with significant change mostly increased in size as the NDVI record grown in length. The rate of increase in size of areas with significantly decreasing NDVI was larger than that with significantly increasing NDVI, which led to the NDVI increase obviously slowing down or stopping at regional scale. The vegetation growth in the study area was regulated by both climate change and human activity. Temperature was the most important driving factor in spring and autumn, whereas precipitation in summer. Extensive use of fertilizers and increased farmland irrigated area promoted the vegetation growth. However, the rapid increase in the proportion of cotton cultivation and use of drip irrigation might reduce spring NDVI in the part of farmlands, and the increase in stocking levels of livestock might lead to a decrease in NDVI in some grasslands.

[Retrieval method for estimating snow depth using hyperspectral data in snowmelt period].

The snow surface reflectance spectra with different depth in snowmelt period and snow depth data were measured and its correlation was analyzed. The characteristic absorption band data of the valley with higher correlation were used to establish a single band snow depth regression model. The highest contribution rate of the band was selected as the input variable of the neural network model to retrieve snow depth. The results show that in Juntang Lake area, near 1 022, 1 241 and 1 492 nm exists characteristic absorption valley of snow, and compared to estimation accuracy of the single-band inversion of snow depth model (R2 = 0.53), ANN-BP model has a higher inversion level, and determination coefficient (R2 = 0.86, RMSE = 0.67) was obtained with 4 nodes in hidden layers, indicating that ANN-BP model can greatly improve the ability of inversion of snow depth with hyperspectral data.

[Spectral characters analysis of ground objects in snowmelt period in the northern slope of Tianshan Mountains].

Urumqi River Basin and Juntanghu Basin, located in the northern slope of Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang, were selected as typical study areas. With the portable field spectrometer CI700 produced by CID in the United States and from a large number of field investigations and field measurements in the snowmelt period (usually starts in the end of February or the beginning of March, and goes on for many days) from 2006 to 2009, a variety of spectral curves and their variation of typical ground objects in the snowmelt period in the northern slope of Tianshan Mountains, such as snow, ice, water and soil, were obtained, and spectral characters analysis was carried out based on the collected data. The results showed that the classes of ground objects in snowmelt period are quite monotone, however, a great challenge was brought about to the quantitative remote sensing research on surface parameters in snowmelt period because of the interactive effects of the complex systems of snow-ice-water-soil, the spectral properties of typical ground objects, and their complex changes. Reflectance of soil with different moisture conditions is distinct, as well as reflectance of ice and snow under different environment or dissimilar mixtures have obvious development trends. The series of observations and analysis of the typical and complex spectral features in snowmelt period are of great significance for the fundamental study of objects' spectral characteristics, as well as for the application of quantitative remote sensing studies.