Foveal avascular zone in normal human eyes by optical coherence tomography angiography.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the influence factors of the area of superficial plexus foveal avascular zone (FAZ) and related indexes of fovea measured with optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) in normal subjects. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study from November 2020 to May 2021 in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Each subject received related eye examination. The correlation between all the factors and superficial plexus FAZ were analyzed under univariable and multivariable linear regression analysis. RESULTS: Finally, 239 subjects with sufficient data were recruited in the study, including 108 males and 131 females, aged 27.41±4.63 years. The area of superficial plexus FAZ was 0.33±0.16 mm2. In the univariate regression, gender (ß = 41.702, 95%CI: 9.152 to 74.253, P = 0.012), drinking (ß = -66.074, 95%CI: -99.197 to -32.951, P = 0.001) and axial length (ß = -15.874, 95%CI: -29.562 to -2.185, P = 0.023) were associated with superficial plexus FAZ area. In multivariate regression analysis results, drinking (ß = -42.410, 95%CI = -79.388 to -5.432, P = 0.025) was significantly correlated with superficial plexus FAZ area. CONCLUSION: The area of superficial plexus FAZ was not affected by age, gender, systematical and biochemical indicators, but related to the status of drinking.

Enhanced Fluorescence with Tunable Color in Doped Diphosphine-Protected Gold Nanoclusters.

Rational control of the luminescent properties of ligand-protected coinage metal clusters has long been pursued but remains challenging. Here we explore the crucial structural and electronic factors governing the fluorescence of a diphosphine-protected [Au13(dppe)5Cl2]3+ cluster by time-dependent density functional theory calculations. By substituting the central Au atom with group 5 to group 11 transition metal atoms, the emission wavelength is adjustable from red to blue, accompanied by enhanced fluorescence intensity compared with the undoped cluster. The evolution of light-emitting behavior upon doping and the corresponding roles of the dopant, Au cage, ligands, and their interplay are interpreted at the electronic structure level. In particular, strong dopant-Au cage interaction associated with large electron-hole overlap on the dopant are is a key factor to endow large emission energy and intensity. These theoretical results provide vital guidance for designing atomically precise nanoclusters with visible fluorescence and high quantum yield for practical uses.

Sex differences in ocular biometric measurements: A twin study.

Objective: Gender differences in ocular biometric measurements of opposite-sex and same-sex twin pairs are still unclear. We aimed to investigate the difference between ocular biometric measurements in adolescent twin pairs. Materials and methods: This retrospective study included a total of 64 eyes of 64 adolescents from 32 twins. The ocular biometric measurements and refractive prediction error (RE) were acquired from four groups of dizygotic (DZ) twins: boys from same-sex twin-pairs (SSM, n = 20), boys from opposite-sex twin-pairs (OSM, n = 8), girls from opposite-sex twin-pairs (OSF, n = 8), and girls from same-sex twin-pairs (SSF, n = 29). Results: The mean age of the patient was 9.92 ± 2.84 (range: 6-18) years. Overall, boys had higher height, AL, WTW, but lower Ks, and Kf than girls (p < 0.05). Specifically, SSF was found to have the lowest lens thickness (LT), anterior chamber depth (ACD), central corneal thickness (CCT), white to white (WTW), and axial length (AL) levels, while the highest keratometry readings in the flat (Kf) and steep (Ks) levels compared with OSM, OSF, and SSM adolescents (p < 0.05). Compared with the OSF adolescents, ACD levels of the SSF adolescents were significantly lower [(2.99 ± 0.35) and (3.26 ± 0.15) mm, p = 0.033)], but Kf indicator was significantly larger [(43.93 ± 1.64) and (42.91 ± 1.75), p = 0.016)]. Conclusion: Our study indicates that there was a significant difference in ocular biometric measurements between twin pairs, and sharing the uterus with a DZ twin SSF has smaller ocular indicator measurements. Our findings provide information on the eyeball and refractive development in adolescents.

TuYou-County Pediatric Eye (TYPE) study, design issues, baseline demographic characteristics, and implications: Report number 1.

ABSTRACT: To report the rationale, design, and baseline demographic characteristics of TuYou-County Pediatric Eye study, which mainly aimed to determine the retinal microvascular changes with optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) and its association with eye abnormalities in school aged children and adolescents at suburban location in Northern China.TuYou-County Pediatric Eye study was a school-based survey conducted in TuYou-County. Multi-ethnic (Mongol, Han, and Hui) participants will be followed up for 5 years. Standardized ophthalmological examinations include visual acuity, ocular biometry, retinal photography, and OCTA. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect variables regarding to eye disease such as parental history of eye diseases, near work, outdoor activities, living and eating habits, etc.After sampling, 687 participants were eligible for investigation, and 20 students did not attend the investigation, living 667 (response rate, 97.1%) students completed questionnaires and all ocular examinations. The average age of all participants was 14.9 ±â€Š5.11.TYPE study is the first large-scale school-based multi-ethnic survey in suburban site of Northern China. Continuous identification of retinal microvascular changes with eye diseases will provide new insights into the control related diseases in school-age children and adolescents.

Emerging Role of Mesenchymal Stem Cell-derived Exosomes in Regenerative Medicine.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have shown the great value of cell therapy over the past few decades. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been reported to treat various degenerative diseases not through their differentiation potential but through their paracrine factors of the extracellular vesicle (EV) including exosomes. Exosomes are nanosized (70~150 nm) membrane-bound extracellular vesicles, not only involved in cell-to-cell communication but also in the development of tissue injury repair. OBJECTIVE: As more researchers proved the enormous potential of exosomes in the field of repairing damaged tissue currently, it is urgent to explore the concrete mechanism and make exosomes to be a practical treatment tool in clinical medicine. In our study, we analyzed and summarized the work on tissue repair via exosomes in order to give some suggestions about the application of exosomes in clinical reality in the future. RESULTS: MSC-derived exosomes (MSC-Ex) contain a wide variety of functional proteins, mRNAs, miRNAs and signaling lipids. Compared with their parent cells, MSC-Ex are more stable and can reduce the inherent safety risks in administering viable cells such as the risk of occlusion in microvasculature. MSC-Ex can be used to develop a cell-free exosome-based therapy for regenerative medicine, and may provide an alternative to MSC-based therapy. CONCLUSION: This review summarizes the most recent knowledge of therapeutic potential of MSC-Ex in the liver, heart, kidney, bone, brain diseases and cancer, as well as their associated challenges and opportunities.