Ciliary Body as "Niche" for Eye Tissues

Article: A Niche for the Eye
Source: Stowers Institute for Medical Research, via Neuroscience News and Research  and NEI
Published: January 1, 2021

Wild type mouse eye morphology

This study is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, the ciliary body is not as commonly talked about, unless you specialize in glaucoma, in which case it is talked about a lot. The ciliary body produces aqueous humor, a filtrate of blood, that nourishes the tissues of the eye. Glaucoma is a very complex disease with many contributing factors and consequences, but where the ciliary body is concerned, if too much aqueous is produced, it can lead to elevated intraocular pressure and damage to the optic nerve and other tissues (i.e., glaucoma). This study doesn't take the perspective of the ciliary body's connection to glaucoma though. Rather, it examines the ciliary body as a potential "niche" for eye tissues. The researchers themselves hesitate to call it a reserve for "stem cells," since previous research had disproved that hypothesis. However, they promote the hypothesis of a more indirect role of the ciliary body in maintaining eye tissues by means of the Notch signaling pathway. The details of the involved proteins are described in the article, but the synoposis is that the Notch pathway provides signals that affect the cellular morphogenesis and function of other eye tissues. In other words, the ciliary body doesn't provide the stem cells themselves, but rather regulates development of eye tissues through a signaling pathway. Finally, the research explored how these proteins are involved in the functioning of the ciliary body itself.

My rating of this study: ⭐⭐

Pang J, Le L, Zhou Y, et al. "NOTCH Signaling Controls Ciliary Body Morphogenesis and Secretion by Directly Regulating Nectin Protein Expression." Cell Reports.  34(2):108603. 12 January 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108603