Estrogen receptor 1 activation suppresses microglia-derived Tnf-α signaling as a photoreceptor self-protection mechanism
Yuting Li, Yadi Li, Jiarui Luo, Lan Wang, Qianlu Yang, Qianxi Yang, Cong Duan, Wenrong Xu, Yujie Dong, Lei Kong, Yan Li, Wenjia Zhang, Kangwei Jiao, Zhijian Zhao, Christina Schwarz, François Paquet-Durand, Junchuan Ye, Zhulin Hu, Jie Yan · 2025
Read Estrogen receptor 1 activation suppresses microglia-derived Tnf-α signaling as a photoreceptor self-protection mechanism by Yuting Li, Yadi Li, Jiarui Luo, Lan Wang, Qianlu Yang, Qianxi Yang, Cong Duan, Wenrong Xu, Yujie Dong, Lei Kong, Yan Li, Wenjia Zhang, Kangwei Jiao, Zhijian Zhao, Christina Schwarz, François Paquet-Durand, Junchuan Ye, Zhulin Hu, Jie Yan (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12751806.txt.
Description
Yuting Li and co-authors uncover, in a 2025 study, a self-protection program inside the degenerating retina, and how to amplify it. Retinitis pigmentosa kills the eye's light sensors over time, and inflammation lit by the retina's own immune cells hurries the loss. Estrogen's role had looked contradictory. The team names its alpha receptor, Esr1, as a central brake on that inflammation, rising as degeneration proceeds.
In two mouse models, plain estrogen helped one and harmed the other, but a drug that switches on Esr1 alone protected both, saving light sensors and vision responses. The mechanism runs through the microglia: receptor activation cuts their output of a toxic signal and breaks a self-feeding recruitment loop. Blocking that signal's main receiver protected even better than broad blockers. The authors frame Esr1 activation as turning up a defense the retina already owns.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yuting Li, Yadi Li, Jiarui Luo, Lan Wang, Qianlu Yang, Qianxi Yang, Cong Duan, Wenrong Xu, Yujie Dong, Lei Kong, Yan Li, Wenjia Zhang, Kangwei Jiao, Zhijian Zhao, Christina Schwarz, François Paquet-Durand, Junchuan Ye, Zhulin Hu, Jie Yan |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 73 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |