Kai Yao

Wuhan University of Science and Technology | WUST · Institute of Visual Neuroscience and Stem Cell Engineering

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is an inherited retinal dystrophy causing progressive and irreversible loss of retinal photoreceptors. Here, we developed a genome-editing tool characterized by the versatility of prime editors (PEs) and unconstrained PAM requirement of a SpCas9 variant (SpRY), referred to as PESpRY. The diseased retinas of Pde6b-associate...

Microglia are the primary resident retinal macrophages that monitor neuronal activity in real-time and facilitate angiogenesis during retinal development. In certain retinal diseases, the activated microglia promote retinal angiogenesis in hypoxia stress through neurovascular coupling and guide neovascularization to avascular areas (e.g., the outer...

The critical role of epigenetic modification of histones in maintaining the normal function of the nervous system has attracted increasing attention. Among these modifications, the level of histone acetylation, modulated by histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs), is essential in regulating gene expression. In recent year...

ADP-ribosylation is a reversible post-translational modification (PTM) tightly regulated by the dynamic interplay between its writers, readers and erasers. As an intricate and versatile PTM, ADP-ribosylation plays critical roles in various physiological and pathological processes. In this review, we discuss the major players involved in the ADP-rib...

Retinal degenerative diseases are the major factors leading to severe visual impairment and even irreversible blindness worldwide. The therapeutic approach for retinal degenerative diseases is one extremely urgent and hot spot in science research. The sigma-1 receptor is a novel, multifunctional ligand-mediated molecular chaperone residing in endop...

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is genetically heterogeneous retinopathy caused by photoreceptor cell death and retinal pigment epithelial atrophy that eventually results in blindness in bilateral eyes. Various photoreceptor cell death types and pathological phenotypic changes that have been disclosed in RP demand in-depth research of its pathogenic mech...

Insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein-2 (IGF2BP2 or IMP2) is a member of a conserved family of RNA binding proteins. These proteins bind to and regulate target mRNA localization, stability, and translation. Their structure, expression and functions in bony fish are not well understood. Here, we characterized the zebrafish igf2bp2 gene a...

Aims Exogenous tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), an indispensable cofactor of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), supplementation has been proved to be of advantage to improve cardiovascular function. Nevertheless, due to its highly redox-sensitive and easy to be oxidized, there is an urgent need to develop an appropriate BH4 formulation for clinica...

In zebrafish, Müller glia (MG) are a source of retinal stem cells that can replenish damaged retinal neurons and restore vision1. In mammals, however, MG do not spontaneously re-enter the cell cycle to generate a population of stem or progenitor cells that differentiate into retinal neurons. Nevertheless, the regenerative machinery may exist in the...

In cold-blooded vertebrates such as zebrafish, Müller glial cells (MGs) readily proliferate to replenish lost retinal neurons. In mammals, however, MGs lack regenerative capability as they do not spontaneously re-enter the cell cycle unless the retina is injured. Here, we show that gene transfer of β-catenin in adult mouse retinas activates Wnt sig...

We analysed retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) defects in eyes with normal circumpapillary RNFL (cpRNFL) thickness using posterior pole asymmetry analysis (PPAA) and investigated the parameters of Bruch membrane opening (BMO) and neural canals using enhanced depth imaging spectral domain optical coherence tomography (EDI-SDOCT). A total of 112 preper...

Background and objectives: Chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) is regarded as a type of severe diffuse retinal pigment epitheliopathy. There is an atrophic tract at level of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) due to hyper-permeability of choroidal vessels, along with photoreceptor (PR) atrophy. Indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) is con...

Dear Sir,We write to report the findings about the near infrared autofluorescence (NIR-AF) in the diffuse subretinal fibrosis syndrome (DSF) in a Chinese patient. DSF represents a rare entity of multifocal choroiditis characterized by extensive coalescing macular scarring [1] and scattered yellow/gray choroidal and retinal pigment epithelial (RPE)...

Kit ligand (Kitl) is an important paracrine factor involved in the activation of primordial follicles from the quiescent pool and in the maintenance of meiotic arrest before germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD). It has been reported that follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) stimulates but luteinizing hormone (LH) suppresses the expression of Kitl in the...

Objective To investigate the discrepancy between patient-reported symptoms and measured clinical findings and influencing factors in dry eye (DE). Setting A population-based, cross-sectional study was performed in July–August 2007 in northeast China. The study was performed on populations originating from two rural districts that are respectively l...

Genetic studies have suggested a functional link between cholesterol/sphingolipid metabolism and endocytic membrane traffic. Here we show that perturbing the cholesterol/sphingomyelin balance in the plasma membrane results in the massive formation of clusters of narrow endocytic tubular invaginations positive for N-BAR proteins. These tubules are i...

Kit ligand (KITL) plays indispensable roles both in primordial follicle activation and in the maintenance of meiotic arrest of the oocyte. The regulation of KITL expression in the ovary, however, remains largely unknown. In the zebrafish, there are 2 paralogues of KITL, kitlga and kitlgb, and 2 Kit receptors, kita and kitb. Consistent with the situ...

Consisting of Kit ligand and receptor Kit, the Kit system is involved in regulating many ovarian functions such as follicle activation, granulosa cell proliferation, and oocyte growth and maturation. In mammals, Kit ligand is derived from the granulosa cells and Kit receptor is expressed in the oocyte and theca cells. In the zebrafish, the Kit syst...

Angiogenesis is meticulously controlled by a fine balance between positive and negative regulatory activities. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a predominant angiogenic factor and its dosage is precisely regulated during normal vascular formation. In cancer, VEGF is commonly overproduced, resulting in abnormal neovascularization. VEGF i...

The Kit system, including Kit ligand and its receptor Kit, has critical roles in mammalian reproduction, especially in the ovary. Unlike mammalian species, two copies of genes are present in the zebrafish genome for both ligand (kitlga and kitlgb) and receptor (kita and kitb). Phylogenetic and chromosome synteny analyses suggest that these duplicat...

Stem cell factor (SCF), also named kit ligand, is widely expressed in both embryos and adults. The receptor of SCF (Kit) is a type III receptor tyrosine kinase, which is activated by dimerization and autophosphorylation upon SCF binding. The kit system plays important roles in mammalian reproduction; however, its function in the reproduction of non...

Dmrt1 gene is the first sex differentiation gene found conserved across animal phyla. It plays an important role in mammalian sexual differentiation. Sequence analysis of mammalian dmrt1 5' and 3' flanking regions showed that there were three and seven conserved regions (>60% homology), respectively. Dmrt1 promoter, 3' flanking region and coding se...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) constitute a growing class of non-coding RNAs that are thought to regulate gene expression by translational repression and mRNA degradation. We report here that short interfering RNA (siRNA) mutation significantly changed kinetics of the folding and unfolding of secondary structures and decreased Tm value of the duplex melting. T...

Sex determination/differentiation is the only developmental process involving two types of cell divisions (mitosis and meiosis). Analysis of transcription of key gene DMRT1 in the process showed that DMRT1 gene on the chromosome Z was trans-spliced with CENP C1 on the chromosome 4, CD5R on the chromosome 5 and 37LRP/p40 on the chromosome 2, which c...