Research progress of microRNA in proliferative vitreoretinopathy

Abstract

Proliferative vitreoretinopathy(PVR)is a eye disease characterized by the formation of epiretinal membranes(ERM)composed of extracellular matrix(ECM)and various types of cells in the vitreous and/or the surface of the retina through the wound repair and fibrotic process. ERM shrinks to form retinal folds and stretches the retina to cause retinal detachment(RD). Epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT)of retinal pigment epithelial(RPE)cells and accumulation of ECM are considered to be the main pathological mechanisms for the formation of ERM. RPE cells undergo a process named EMT induced by transforming growth factor-β(TGF-β), by which differentiated epithelial cells go through epithelial phenotypic loss, the weakness of cell-cell contact and mesenchymal phenotype expression. Fibroblast-like cells differentiated from mesenchymal cells produce ECM and other components, which forms ERM together with glial cells and fibroblasts, etc. Recent studies indicated a lot of cytokines/growth factors, transcriptional factors, and microRNA(miRNA)regulate the development of EMT in RPE cells, in which miRNA is a novel and powerful regulatory gene and plays a critical regulatory role in the EMT process of PVR. This review focuses on the current understandings of the mechanism and the interventional treatments of miRNA in PVR.

Keywords

• proliferative vitreoretinopathy
• retinal pigment epithelial cells
• epithelial-mesenchymal transition
• microrna/mirna
• transforming growth factor-β