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Query: UMLS:C0155339 (Brown)
 12,436 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Although much is known about the growth factor changes in ocular tissues during various diseases, little is known about normal aging of the retina. In order to further understand normal aging in the retina, we characterized age-related changes of growth factor expression in three different ages of rat retina. Real time PCR and protein analysis was conducted to investigate steady state mRNA expression and protein levels of VEGF, VEGFR2, PEDF, Ang-1, Tie-2, EphB4 and ephrinB2 in the retina of 8-, 22-, and 32-month-old Brown Norway X Fischer 344 F1 hybrid rats. An increase of VEGF protein levels was found at 32months compared to 8 and 22months of age. VEGFR2 protein was found to be increased at 22 and 32months compared to 8months. PEDF protein levels were reduced at 22 and 32months. Tie-2 levels were found to be significantly decreased by 32months compared to 8months of age, while ephrinB2 was found to be significantly lower at both 22 and 32months compared to 8months of age. The increases found in VEGF and its receptor VEGFR2, with the simultaneous decrease of PEDF protein levels, may stimulate an environment that is well suited for neovascularization in the normal aging retina. Overall, these results suggest that normal aging produces substantial changes in gene expression and protein levels.
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PMID:Changes in growth factor expression in normal aging of the rat retina. 1793 52

Cells isolated from the ciliary body (CB) of the adult human eye possess properties of retinal stem/progenitor cells and can be propagated as spheres in culture. As these cells are isolated from a non-neural epithelium which has neuroepithelial origin, they may have both epithelial and neural lineages. Since it is the properties of neural progenitor cells that are sought after in a future scenario of autotransplantation, we wanted to directly compare human CB spheres with neurospheres derived from the human subventricular zone (SVZ), which is the best characterized neural stem cell niche in the CNS of adults. The CB epithelium was dissected from donor eyes (n = 8). Biopsies from the ventricular wall were harvested during neurosurgery due to epilepsy (n = 7). CB and SVZ tissue were also isolated from Brown Norwegian rats. Dissociated single cells were cultivated in a sphere-promoting medium and passaged every 10-30 days. Fixed spheres were studied by immunohistochemistry, quantitative RT-PCR and scanning/transmission electron microscopy. We found that both CB and SVZ spheres contained a mixed population of cells embedded in extracellular matrix. CB spheres, in contrast to SVZ neurospheres, contained pigmented cells with epithelial morphology that stained for cytokeratins (3/12 + 19), were connected through desmosomes and tight-junctions and produced PEDF. Markers of neural progenitors (nestin, Sox-2, GFAP) were significantly lower expressed in human CB compared to SVZ spheres, and nestin positive cells in the CB spheres also contained pigment. There was higher expression of EGF and TGF-beta receptors in human CB spheres, and a comparative greater activation of the canonical Wnt pathway. These results indicate that adult human CB spheres contain progenitor cells with epithelial properties and limited expression of neural progenitor markers compared to CNS neurospheres. Further studies mapping the regulation between epithelial and neural properties in the adult human CB spheres are vital to fully utilize them as a clinical source of retinal progenitor cells in the future.
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PMID:A comparison of epithelial and neural properties in progenitor cells derived from the adult human ciliary body and brain. 1895 49