Millions of people throughout the world suffer from visual impairment due to retinal degenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. These afflictions can lead to severe retinal damage which does not heal spontaneously. The embryonic chick has been used as a model organism to study retina regeneration in the hopes to find a treatment that could then be translated into mammalian models, including humans.<\/p>\n
Our lab aims to study retinal regeneration through the reprogramming of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). The RPE is a monolayer structure behind the retina that nourishes, and maintains the health and functions of retinal cells. When the retina is injured, RPE cells lose their characteristics to become progenitor-like cells, which give rise to a complete retina in the presence of inducers, such as Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 (FGF2). In an earlier study, we showed that a proinflammatory molecule, Interleukin-6, was able to induce regeneration through RPE reprogramming, however, the mechanism remains obscure.<\/p>\n
This project aims to study the mechanism by which IL-6 induces RPE reprogramming . We found that the intact RPE exposed to IL-6 shows a transcriptional profile that mimics the injured RPE. We then determined IL-6 induced RPE reprogramming through a different mechanism than that of FGF2. In the future, we will dissect the mechanism by inhibiting specific signaling pathways in the presence of IL-6.<\/p>\n
This experience has been relevant because as a doctor, I will require skills in critical thinking and analysis. Viewing how basic science can play a role in preventive medicine has helped me to see the importance behind a solid understanding of chemical and biological processes and how this can help improve our medical field in the future.<\/p>\n
Author:<\/strong> Taylor Lentz<\/p>\n Faculty Advisor:<\/strong> Dr. Katia Del Rio-Tsonis, Department of Biology<\/p>\n Graduate Student Advisor:<\/strong> Zeyu Han, Department of Biology<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Millions of people throughout the world suffer from visual impairment due to retinal degenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. These afflictions can lead to severe retinal damage which does not heal spontaneously. The embryonic chick has been used as a model organism to study retina regeneration in the hopes to find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2899,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,24],"tags":[98,491,89],"class_list":["post-1801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-10-min-presentations","category-biology","tag-neuroscience","tag-retina","tag-stem"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbRpLx-t3","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/undergraduate-research-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/undergraduate-research-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/undergraduate-research-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/undergraduate-research-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/undergraduate-research-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/undergraduate-research-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/undergraduate-research-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/undergraduate-research-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/undergraduate-research-forum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}