ArticleExperimental & molecular medicine2022
TGF-β promotes pericyte-myofibroblast transition in subretinal fibrosis through the Smad2/3 and Akt/mTOR pathways.
Article in Experimental & molecular medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 68 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
68 citing papers in PubMed, 96 citations in OpenAlex.
- Versatile Microgel Platform for Intervertebral Disc Degeneration Therapy: Targeting Pericyte-Mediated Fibrosis and Protecting Nucleus Pulposus Cells.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Cellular crosstalk of fibroblast-myofibroblast transition in intestinal homeostasis and disease.Biomarker research · 2026Review
- Murine models of neovascular AMD revisited: Mechanistic pathways, immune-metabolic crosstalk, and the impact of aging and sex.Experimental eye research · 2026Review
- TGF-β2 exerts neuroprotective effects via inhibition of astrocyte-mediated inflammatory responses.BMC neuroscience · 2026Article
- A graph retrieval-augmented generation pipeline for systematic drug target discovery: validation and application to ocular neovascularization.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2026Article
- An Extravascular Synergistic Cocktail Therapeutic Strategy Based on Lanifibranor Loaded Self-Healing Bioelastomer for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Emergence of fibrotic pericytes and their transcriptional regulation in pulmonary fibrosis.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Hdac11 promotes idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis through macrophage M2-type polarization and myofibroblast accumulation by inhibiting Parkin-dependent mitophagy.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Aggressive prostate cancer is associated with pericyte dysfunction.Molecular oncology · 2026Article
- Spatiotemporal dynamics of brain pericytes in ischemic stroke.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Review
- Myofibroblast lineage mapping and inhibiting subretinal fibrosis by targeting SMAD3 and MRTF pathways via microRNA-24 functional study.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Vascular Destabilization and Pericyte Detachment are Mediated by hIAPP Aggregation in Transgenic Mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Integrin inhibition facilitates fibrocartilaginous transformation in connective tissue in osteoarthritis.Science advances · 2026Article
- Pathogenesis of Neovascular Glaucoma in Diabetic Retinopathy: A Review.Journal of ophthalmology · 2026Review
- Metrnl and macrophage polarization: role in skeletal muscle homeostasis and therapeutic potential.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Berberine suppresses mechanical stretch-induced apoptosis and proliferation in vascular smooth muscle cells via ROS/PDI/Drp1 signaling pathway.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Relationship between choroidal thickness changes and macrophage polarization in high myopia.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- Targeting the neurovascular unit in retinal fibrosis: mechanisms and therapeutic perspectives.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- Single-cell transcriptomic profiling identifies YY1 as a key regulator of fibroblast plasticity in hypertrophic scar formation.Burns & trauma · 2026Article
- Profibrotic macrophage-derived CXCL4 promotes pericyte-to-myofibroblast transition after spinal cord injury.Journal of orthopaedic translation · 2026Article
8 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Subretinal fibrosis remains a major obstacle to the management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Choroidal pericytes were found to be a significant source of subretinal fibrosis, but the underlying mechanisms of pericyte-myofibroblast transition (PMT) remain largely unknown. The goal of this study was to explore the role and potential mechanisms by which PMT contributes to subretinal fibrosis. Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) was induced by laser photocoagulation in transgenic mice with the collagen1α1-green fluorescent protein (Col1α1-GFP) reporter, and recombinant adeno-associated virus 2 (rAAV2)-mediated TGF-β2 (rAAV2-TGF-β2) was administered intravitreally to further induce PMT. Primary mouse choroidal GFP-positive pericytes were treated with TGF-β2 in combination with siRNAs targeting Smad2/3, the Akt inhibitor MK2206 or the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin to examine cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation into myofibroblasts. The involvement of the Akt/mTOR pathway in PMT in subretinal fibrosis was further investigated in vivo. Intraocular TGF-β2 overexpression induced GFP-positive pericyte infiltration and PMT in subretinal fibrosis, which was mimicked in vitro. Knockdown of Smad2/3 or inhibition of Akt/mTOR decreased cell proliferation, PMT and migration in primary mouse pericytes. Combined inhibition of Smad2/3 and mTOR showed synergistic effects on attenuating α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression and cell proliferation. In mice with laser-induced CNV, the administration of the Akt/mTOR inhibitors suppressed pericyte proliferation and alleviated the severity of subretinal fibrosis. Our results showed that PMT plays a pivotal role in subretinal fibrosis, which was induced by TGF-β2 through the Smad2/3 and Akt/mTOR pathways. Thus, inhibiting PMT may be a novel strategy for the treatment of subretinal fibrosis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.