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Objective: This study aimed to obtain the volatile components of different parts of lavender in natural condition and provide theoretical basis for quality evaluation and rational utilization of lavender varieties. Methods: Orthogonal experiment was used to optimize the headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME-GC-MS) conditions, and the volatile components of the root, stem, leaf and flower of the representative lavender species France blue were analyzed under the optimal conditions. Results: The optimal conditions of HS-SPME were extraction time 60 min, equilibrium time 20 min and desorption time 5 min. Under the control of these conditions, a total of 36 chemical components were identified from different parts of lavender, among which 6 compounds were identified from each part. Conclusion: The content of volatile components in different parts of lavender varies greatly, among which the content of volatile components in flower parts is higher than that in leaf, and the content of volatile components in stem and root is the least. The contents of ester compounds in flowers and stems were prominent. The contents of olefin in roots and leaves were more prominent.

Abstract Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major vision-threatening disease. Although mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) exhibit beneficial neural protective effects, their limited differentiation capacity in vivo attenuates their therapeutic function. Therefore, the differentiation of MSCs into retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells in vitro and their subsequent transplantation into the subretinal space is expected to improve the outcome of cell therapy. Here, we transdifferentiated human umbilical cord MSCs (hUCMSCs) into induced RPE (iRPE) cells using a cocktail of five transcription factors (TFs): CRX, NR2E1, C-MYC, LHX2, and SIX6. iRPE cells exhibited RPE specific properties, including phagocytic ability, epithelial polarity, and gene expression profile. In addition, high expression of PTPN13 in iRPE cells endows them with an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-resistant capacity through dephosphorylating syntenin1, and subsequently promoting the internalization and degradation of transforming growth factor-β receptors. After grafting into the subretinal space of the sodium iodate-induced rat AMD model, iRPE cells demonstrated a better therapeutic function than hUCMSCs. These results suggest that hUCMSC-derived iRPE cells may be promising candidates to reverse AMD pathophysiology.

AIM: To investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) in patients with macular edema secondary to retinal vein occlusion (RVO-ME). METHODS: Twenty-eight eyes from twenty-eight treatment-naïve patients (14 males and 14 females) with RVO-ME were included in this retrospective study. The retinal vein occlusion (RVO) was comprised of both central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO, n=14) and branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO, n=14). Intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF reagents were administered monthly for three consecutive months, in which 18 patients were injected with ranibizumab and 10 patients were injected with conbercept. All eyes were imaged with optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) at baseline and 1wk after monthly intravitreal anti-VEGF injection. The visual acuity (VA), central macular thickness (CMT), the number of hyperreflective foci (HRF) recognized as an inflammatory sign in OCT images, and non-perfusion area (NPA), were compared before and after anti-VEGF treatments. RESULTS: The mean interval between baseline and follow-up was 29.4±0.79 (range, 27-48)d. Compared with the baseline, the VA improved (logMAR 1.5±0.1 vs 0.8±0.1, P

Abstract Purpose To explore the function and regulatory mechanism of IFITM3 in mouse neural retinal progenitor cells (mNRPCs), which was found to be very important not only in the development of the retina in embryos but also in NRPCs after birth. Methods Published single-cell sequencing data were used to analyze IFITM3 expression in mNRPCs. RNA interference was used to knock down the expression of IFITM3. CCK-8 assays were used to analyze cell viability. RNA-seq was used to assess mRNA expression, as confirmed by real-time quantitative PCR, and immunofluorescence assays and western blots were used to validate the levels of relative proteins, and autophagy flux assay. Lysosomal trackers were used to track the organelle changes. Results The results of single-cell sequencing data showed that IFITM3 is highly expressed in the embryo, and after birth, RNA-seq showed high IFITM3 expression in mNRPCs. Proliferation and cell viability were greatly reduced after IFITM3 was knocked down. The cell membrane system and lysosomes were dramatically changed, and lysosomes were activated and evidently agglomerated in RAMP-treated cells. The expression of LAMP1 was significantly increased with lysosome agglomeration after treatment with rapamycin (RAMP). Further detection showed that SQSTM1/P62, HSC70 and LAMP-2A were upregulated, while no significant difference in LC3A/B expression was observed; no autophagic flux was generated. Conclusion IFITM3 regulates mNRPC viability and proliferation mainly through chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) but not macroautophagy (MA). IFITM3 plays a significant role in maintaining the homeostasis of progenitor cell self-renewal by sustaining low-level activation of CMA to eliminate deleterious factors in cells.

AIM: To develop and evaluate a new fundus image optimization software based on red, green, blue channels (RGB) for the evaluation of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in the Chinese population. METHODS: Fundus images that were diagnosed as AMD from the Shanghai Changfeng Study database were analyzed to develop a standardized optimization procedure. Image brightness, contrast, and color balance were measured. Differences between central lesion area and normal retinal area under different image brightness, contrast, and color balance were observed. The optimal optimization parameters were determined based on the visual system to avoid image distortion. A paired-sample diagnostic test was used to evaluate the enhancement software. Fundus optical coherence tomography (OCT) was used as the gold standard. Diagnostic performances were compared between original images and optimized images using McNemar's test. RESULTS: A fundus image optimization procedure was developed using 86 fundus images of 74 subjects diagnosed with AMD. By observing gray-scale images, choroid can be best displayed in red channel and retina in green channel was found. There was limited information in blue channel. Totally 104 participants were included in the paired sample diagnostic test to assess the performance of the optimization software. After the image enhancement, sensitivity increased from 74% to 88% (P=0.008), specificity decreased slightly from 88% to 84% (P=0.500), and Youden index increased by 0.11. CONCLUSION: The standardized image optimization software increases diagnostic sensitivity and may help ophthalmologists in AMD diagnosis and screening.