New strategies for neuro protection in glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a progressive, irreversible loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and axons that results in characteristic optic atrophy and corresponding progressive visual field defect. The exact mechanisms underlying glaucomatous neuron loss are not clear. The main risk factor for glaucoma onset and development is high intraocular pressure (IOP), however traditional IOP-lowering therapies are often not sufficient to prevent degeneration of RGCs and the vision loss may progress, indicating the need for complementary neuroprotective therapy. This review summarizes the progress for neuro protection in glaucoma in recent 5 years, including modulation of neuroinflammation, gene and cell therapy, dietary supplementation, and sustained-release system.

Irradiated glioma cells induce bystander effects in neural stem cells / 中华放射医学与防护杂志

Objective:To investigate whether irradiated U251 glioma cells can induce bystander effects in unexposed neural stem cells (NSCs) thus affecting its proliferation, stemness and differentiation.Methods:The cells were divided into NSCs group, NSCs+ U251 group (co-cultured with U251) and NSCs+ IR U251 group (co-cultured with 10 Gy irradiated U251). Glioma cells and NSCs were co-cultured in a transwell insert set. Cell counting and neurosphere diameter measuring were carried out to evaluate the proliferation and neurosphere formation ability of NSCs. Immunofluorescence assay was performed to detect the expression of Nestin protein to evaluate the stemness maintenance of NSCs, and to measure the expression levels of Tuj1 and GFAP proteins, the number of neuronal dendrites, synaptic length, the number of glial protrusions, as well as the length of glial protrusions.Results:The number of NSCs cultured with irradiated U251 cells was obviously smaller than that of NSCs cultured with sham-irradiated U251 cells ( t=2.52, P<0.05). The neurosphere formation ability of NSCs and the percentage of Nestin positive NSCs after co-culture with irradiated U251 cells significantly reduced in comparison with those after co-culture with sham-irradiated U251 cells ( t=-3.50, P<0.05). The percentages and the extent of NSCs differentiating into neuronal cells and glial cells( t=6.09, P<0.05)decreased obviously after co-culture with irradiated U251 cells in comparison with those after co-culture with sham-irradiated U251 cells. Conclusions:Irradiated glioma cells can significantly inhibit the proliferation, stemness and differentiation of unexposed NSCs due to bystander effect.