Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is the most common cause of anatomic failure in retinal detachment surgery. To understand the molecular mechanisms, vitreous proteomes of patients with PVR were investigated by two-dimensional-nano-liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Vitreous samples of moderate PVR (grade B), and severe PVR (grade C or D) were aspirated during pars plana vitrectomy before infusion. In the current study, 129, 97 and 137 proteins were identified in vitreous of normal control, moderate and severe PVR, respectively. In PVR vitreous samples, complement components, serine proteinase inhibitors, and extracellular proteins were up-regulated or appeared, while normal cytoskeleton and metabolism proteins were down-regulated or disappeared. It was noteworthy that the proteins involved in transcription and translation regulation increased in vitreous with PVR. Among 102 PVR-specific proteins, kininogen 1 was specifically detected in both vitreous and the corresponding serum. Therefore, it can be concluded that PVR is a complicated pathology process with great amount of proteins involved in metabolism dysfunction, immune reactions, and cytoskeleton remolding. Kininogen 1 may be a candidate biomarker of PVR. Further investigations of these special proteins will provide additional targets for treatment or prevention of ocular proliferative diseases.

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Considering metamorphopsia, special attention should be paid to young patients and/or the cases with involvement of macula. High-resolution OCT is informative in detecting anatomic abnormalities after RRD surgery. The postoperative presence of SRF and disrupted ELM line are independent predictors of metamorphopsia.

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Background/Aims: We intended to investigate the significance of microRNA-146a, Notch2 and IL-6 on Graves ophthalmopathy (GO) and the relationships among them. Methods: About 27 GO patients were incorporated in this study, including 13 patients with inactive GO and14 patients with active GO. Another 15 patients who had previously received strabismus orthopedics or ophthalmectomy due to trauma were selected as the control population. QRT-PCR assay was used to detect microRNA-146a and Notch2 expression levels in plasma. MTT assay and flow cytometry were respectively used to assess the viability and mitosis of the fibroblasts isolated from orbital connective tissue. Double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was employed to detect serum IL-6 levels. The dual luciferase reporter gene assay was used to verify the targeting relationship between microRNA-146a and Notch2. Results: Compared with the control group, the relative expression of miR-146a was significantly increased whereas the relative expression of Notch2 was significantly decreased (all P < 0.05) in GO patients compare with the control. Notch2 can be directly targeted by microRNA-146a. The over-expression of miR-146a markedly facilitated Orbital Fibroblasts (OFs) viability and mitosis whereas markedly suppressed cell apoptosis (all P < 0.05). Exogenous microRNA-146a mimics could down-regulat the expression of Notch2 and up-regulate IL-6 (P < 0.05). The inhibition of microRNA-146 resulted in the elevated expression of Notch2 and decreased expression of IL-6 (P < 0.05). Conclusion: MicroRNA-146a may increase the IL-6 levels and exacerbate GO by directly targeting Notch2.

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Abstract:Nitrogen is an essential nutrient in many terrestrial ecosystems because it affects vegetation's primary production. Due to the variety of nitrogen-containing substances and the differences in their composition across species, statistical approaches are now dominant in remote sensing retrieval of leaf nitrogen content. Many studies remove spectral regions characterized by strong water absorptions before retrieving nitrogen content, because water is believed to mask the absorption features of nitrogen. The objectives of this study are to discuss the necessity of this practice and to explore how water absorption affects leaf nitrogen estimation. Spectral measurements and chemical analyses for Maize, Sawtooth Oak, and Sweetgum leaves were carried out in 2014. The leaf optical properties model PROSPECT5 was used to eliminate the influences of water on the measured reflectance spectra. The inversion accuracy of PROPECT5 for chlorophyll, carotenoid, water, and dry matter of Maize was also discussed. Measured, simulated, and water-removed spectra were used to: (1) find the optimal nitrogen-related spectral index; and (2) regress with the area-based leaf nitrogen concentration (LNC) using the partial least square regression technique (PLSR). Two types of spectral indices were selected in this study: Normalized Difference Spectral Index (NDSI) and Ratio Spectral Index (RSI). Additionally, first-order derivative forms of measured, simulated, and water-removed spectra were devised to search for the optimal spectral indices. Finally, species-specific optimal indices and cross-species optimal indices, as well as their root mean square errors (RMSE) and coefficients of determination (R 2 ), were obtained. The Ending Top Percentile (ETP), an indicator of the performance of cross-species optimal indices, was also calculated. PLSR was combined with leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV) for each species. The predicted root mean square errors (RMSEP) and predicted R 2 were finally calculated. The results showed that chlorophyll, carotenoid, and water contents could be estimated with R 2 of 0.75, 0.59, and 0.69, respectively, which were acceptable for fresh leaves. The dry matter was retrieved with a relatively lower accuracy because of the fixed absorption coefficients adopted by PROSPECT5. The performances of species-specific optimal indices using water-free spectra were comparable to or worse than the corresponding indices derived with measured or simulated spectra. Compared with measured spectra, ETP did not change much after the effects of water were removed, and the R 2 between cross-species optimal spectral indices and area-based LNC for Sawtooth Oak and Sweetgum decreased while it remained almost the same for Maize, suggesting that the water-removed cross-species optimal indices were inferior to the corresponding optimal indices found without water removal. ETP was larger than 30% for all spectra, demonstrating the non-existence of common optimal NDSI or RSI for the three species. After water removal, the accuracy...