New Therapy for Retinoblastoma by Targeting Retinal Progenitor Cells

视网膜母细胞瘤是由视网膜祖细胞增殖失调引起的，视网膜祖细胞通常分化为各种类型的视网膜神经元和Muller胶质细胞。因此，调节视网膜祖细胞分化和增殖的分子机制有望成为治疗视网膜母细胞瘤的新靶点。在这个研究项目中，我们证明了核受体Tlx和受体酪氨酸激酶VEGFR2在视网膜祖细胞中共同表达，这些基因的破坏同样导致小鼠视网膜组织的异常发育和体内平衡受损。

Retinoblastoma is caused by deregulated proliferation of retinal progenitor cells, which normally differentiate into all types of retinal neurons and Muller glia. Therefore, it is expected that molecular mechanisms which regulate differentiation and proliferation of retinal progenitor cells can be novel targets to treat retinoblastoma. In this research program, we demonstrated that the nuclear receptor Tlx and the receptor tyrosine kinase VEGFR2 are co-expressed in retinal progenitor cells, and disruptions of these genes similarly resulted in abnormal development and impaired homeostasis of mouse retinal tissues.