Impaired Autophagy Causes Severe Corneal Neovascularization.

Purpose: To investigate the role of macrophage autophagy in the process of corneal neovascularization (CNV).

Methods: In vivo, mice CNV was induced by alkali injury and compared with rapamycin-treated alkaline burn mice. Western blot was used to determine the autophagic status of the macrophages.

A genome-wide association study reveals a substantial genetic basis underlying the Ebbinghaus illusion.

The Ebbinghaus illusion (EI) is an optical illusion of relative size perception that reflects the contextual integration ability in the visual modality. The current study investigated the genetic basis of two subtypes of EI, EI overestimation, and EI underestimation in humans, using quantitative genomic analyses. A total of 2825 Chinese adults were tested on their magnitudes of EI overestimation and underestimation using the method of adjustment, a standard psychophysical protocol.

Heritability of human visual contour integration-an integrated genomic study.

Contour integration, a key visual function to deal with occlusion and discontinuity in natural scenes, is essential to human survival. However, individuals are not equally well equipped with this ability. In particular, contour integration deficiencies are commonly detected in patients with mental disorders, especially schizophrenia.

Genomic Analyses of Visual Cognition: Perceptual Rivalry and Top-Down Control.

Visual cognition in humans has traditionally been studied with cognitive behavioral methods and brain imaging, but much less with genetic methods. Perceptual rivalry, an important phenomenon in visual cognition, is the spontaneous perceptual alternation that occurs between two distinct interpretations of a physically constant visual stimulus (e.g.

Multi-level genomic analyses suggest new genetic variants involved in human memory.

Development of high-throughput genotyping platforms provides an opportunity to identify new genetic elements related to complex cognitive functions. Taking advantage of multi-level genomic analysis, here we studied the genetic basis of human short-term (STM, n = 1623) and long-term (LTM, n = 1522) memory functions. Heritability estimation based on single nucleotide polymorphism showed moderate (61%, standard error 35%) heritability of short-term memory but almost zero heritability of long-term memory.

Nature vs. nurture in human sociality: multi-level genomic analyses of social conformity.

Social conformity is fundamental to human societies and has been studied for more than six decades, but our understanding of its mechanisms remains limited. Individual differences in conformity have been attributed to social and cultural environmental influences, but not to genes. Here we demonstrate a genetic contribution to conformity after analyzing 1,140 twins and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based studies of 2,130 young adults.

[VEGF short hairpin RNA expression plasmid blocks VEGF expression in rat vascular endothelial cell and inhibits rat corneal neovascularization].

Objective: To investigate RNA interference in rat corneal neovascularization and vascular endothelial cells of vascular endothelial growth factor expression and its mechanism.

Methods: In empirical study short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting VEGF mRNA was designed and synthesized and VEGF shRNA eukaryotic plasmids were transfected into EC with Lipofectamine 2000 transfection system. Expression of VEGF mRNA and protein in transfected cells was detected by RT-PCR and Western blot.