David W Li
Sun Yat-sen University, China
Title: The tumor suppressor p53 plays an essential role in mediating lens differentiation and heterochromatin protection of RPE cells
Biography
Biography: David W Li
Abstract
The tumor suppressor p53 plays an essential role in mediating lens differentiation and heterochromatin protection of RPE cells The tumor suppressor, p53 is a multi-function molecule regulating transcription, cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. However, how would p53 regulate lens differentiation remains largely known until our recent demonstration. Oxidative stress (OS)-induced retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell apoptosis is critically implicated in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), one of the leading causes for blindness in the elderly. The highly condensed, repressive heterochromatin is recently found to play critical roles in mediating diverse stress response. How RPE heterochromatin is regulated upon OS exposure is largely unknown. Here in this lecture, I will discuss our recent work using both mouse model and cultured human RPE cells to investigate how p53 mediates the heterochromatin protection of RPE cells against oxidative damage upon OS exposure.