Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) is a type of eye disease that can cause vision loss. In recent years, many studies have attempted to investigate the major pathological processes and molecular pathogenic mechanisms of CNV. Because many diseases are related to genes, the genes associated with CNV need to be identified. In this study, we proposed a network-based approach for identifying novel CNV-associated genes. To execute such method, we first employed a protein-protein interaction network reported in STRING. Then, we applied a network diffusion algorithm, Laplacian heat diffusion, on this network by selecting validated CNV-related genes as the seed nodes. As a result, some novel genes that had unknown but strong relationships with validated genes were identified. Furthermore, we used a screening procedure to extract the most essential genes. Eleven latent CNV-related genes were finally obtained. Extensive analyses were performed to confirm that these genes are novel CNV-related genes.

Lymphoma is a serious type of cancer, especially for adolescents and elder adults, although this malignancy is quite rare compared with other types of cancer. The cause of this malignancy remains ambiguous. Genetic factor is deemed to be highly associated with the initiation and progression of lymphoma, and several genes have been related to this disease. Determining the pathogeny of lymphoma by identifying the related genes is important. In this study, we presented a random walk-based method to infer the novel lymphoma-associated genes. From the reported 1,458 lymphoma-associated genes and protein–protein interaction network, raw candidate genes were mined by using the random walk with restart algorithm. The determined raw genes were further filtered by using three screening tests (i.e., permutation, linkage, and enrichment tests). These tests could control false-positive genes and screen out essential candidate genes with strong linkages to validate the lymphoma-associated genes. A total of 108 inferred genes were obtained. Analytical results indicated that some inferred genes, such as RAC3, TEC, IRAK2/3/4, PRKCE, SMAD3, BLK, TXK, PRKCQ, were associated with the initiation and progression of lymphoma.

Background: to investigate whether the sclera of guinea pig contains stem cells with multiple differentiation potentials.Methods: Scleral tissue from guinea pig was separated from the retina and choroid and digested to release single cells. The cells cultured was identified as stem cells by flow cytometric analysis, semiquantitative RT-PCR. Abilities for multipotent differentiation were analyzed by histochemical staining technique (oil-red-O staining, alcian blue staining and alizarin red staining). Results: The cultured scleral stem cells were positive for CD44 and CD105 (mesenchymal stem cell surface markers) by flow cytometry. The cells cultured expressed stem cell markers ABCG2, Notch1, Six2 and Pax6, and the most important component of sclera type I collagen. The positive staining informed that the cells cultured were able to differentiate to adipogenic, chondrogenic, and osteogenic lineages.Conclusion: The guinea pig sclera contained stem cells with multiple differentiation potentials. The cells were also related to scleral collagen and cartilage related proteins. The finding may provide a new tool to help clarify mechanisms of sclera related disease in further studies.