Use of a tissue clearing technique combined with retrograde trans-synaptic viral tracing to evaluate changes in mouse retinorecipient brain regions following optic nerve crush.

Successful establishment of reconnection between retinal ganglion cells and retinorecipient regions in the brain is critical to optic nerve regeneration. However, morphological assessments of retinorecipient regions are limited by the opacity of brain tissue. In this study, we used an innovative tissue cleaning technique combined with retrograde trans-synaptic viral tracing to observe changes in retinorecipient regions connected to retinal ganglion cells in mice after optic nerve injury. Specifically, we performed light-sheet imaging of whole brain tissue after a clearing process. We found that pseudorabies virus 724 (PRV724) mostly infected retinal ganglion cells, and that we could use it to retrogradely trace the retinorecipient regions in whole tissue-cleared brains. Unexpectedly, PRV724-traced neurons were more widely distributed compared with data from previous studies. We found that optic nerve injury could selectively modify projections from retinal ganglion cells in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, intergeniculate leaflet, ventral lateral geniculate nucleus, central amygdala, basolateral amygdala, Edinger-Westphal nucleus, and oculomotor nucleus, but not the superior vestibular nucleus, red nucleus, locus coeruleus, gigantocellular reticular nucleus, or facial nerve nucleus. Our findings demonstrate that the tissue clearing technique, combined with retrograde trans-synaptic viral tracing, can be used to objectively and comprehensively evaluate changes in mouse retinorecipient regions that receive projections from retinal ganglion cells after optic nerve injury. Thus, our approach may be useful for future estimations of optic nerve injury and regeneration.

Diagnostic and therapeutic values of PMEPA1 and its correlation with tumor immunity in pan-cancer.

AIMS: The prostate transmembrane protein, androgen induced 1 (PMEPA1) is differentially expressed in pan-cancer. However, PMEPA1 specific role in cancers has not been fully clarified. This study aims to explore the potential role of Pmepa1 in pan-cancer and specific cancer, with a view to deepening the research on the pathological mechanism of cancer. MAIN METHODS: The Perl language and R language were used to identify the correlation between PMEPA1 expression level and clinical indicators, prognosis values, tumor microenvironment, immune cells' infiltration, immune checkpoint genes, TMB and MSI. The Therapeutic Target Database was used for identifying potential therapeutic drugs that target the pathways that are significantly affected by PMEPA1 expression. KEY FINDINGS: PMEPA1 differential expression significantly correlated with patients' age, race, tumors' stage and status. PMEPA1 high expression was closely correlated with poor prognosis in many cancer types, excluding prostate adenocarcinoma. PMEPA1 expression was closely related to tumor cells and the immune microenvironment in stromal and immune cells' level, immune cells' infiltration, immune checkpoint genes, tumor mutational burden and microsatellite instability. We also found that the activity of the olfactory transduction pathway was closely related to PMEPA1 expression. In pan-cancer, Trifluoperazine and Halofantrine have the potential to reduce PMEPA1 expression. SIGNIFICANCE: This study integrated existing data to explore PMEPA1 potential function in cancers, provided insights for the future cancer-related studies.

Predictive risk factors for exudative retinal detachment after vitrectomy for proliferative diabetic retinopathy.

This retrospective study investigated the risk factors of exudative retinal detachment (ERD) occurring after vitrectomy performed to treat proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR).All patients were treated with vitrectomy for PDR. Patients with history(s) of the following were excluded: ocular surgery (except phacoemulsification combined with intraocular lens implantation or retinal laser photocoagulation); ocular trauma; systemic diseases; ocular diseases; uveitis; scleritis; tumor; congenital ocular disorders; or others.Included were 205 eyes of 169 patients, of whom 18 (8.78%) developed ERD with varying degrees of exudative choroidal detachment after 1 to 3 days. Binary logistic regression showed the following association with the development of ERD: lower serum albumin concentration (P = .001); without intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) drug injection before vitrectomy (P = .044); and history of phacoemulsification combined with intraocular lens implantation (P = .046). No association was found with gender; age; systolic pressure; diastolic pressure; panretinal photocoagulation; intraocular pressure on the 1st postoperative day; intraocular pressure on the 2nd postoperative day; serum albumin concentration; or blood urea nitrogen.Risk factors for ERD after vitrectomy for PDR include low serum albumin concentration, without history of intravitreal anti-VEGF drug injection before surgery, and a history of phacoemulsification combined with intraocular lens implantation.