Caspase-14 Expression Impairs Retinal Pigment Epithelium Barrier Function: Potential Role in Diabetic Macular Edema
Figure 7
Increased apoptosis in RPE cells cultured under HG conditions or overexpressing caspase-14. Both high glucose treatment and caspase-14 transfected cells showed significantly increased levels of apoptosis compared with cells under NG or expressing control vector (). Caspase-14 knockdown by siRNA reduced the number of apoptotic RPE cells under HG conditions. However, the number of apoptotic cells was higher than the control ( versus HG). Cell transfected with control plasmid had no significant difference in apoptosis compared with control (; ).