Yun Le, PhD Assistant Professor   Dr. Le's Research Group
Mailing Address: 920 Stanton L. Young Blvd., BSEB 302G Oklahoma City, OK 73104-5020	Telephone: (405) 271-1087 Fax: (405) 271-3973
Email: yun-le@ouhsc.edu

Research Interests

1. Pathogenic mechanisms of diabetic retinopathy: retinal neovascularization and retinal vascular leakage are the common pathogenic changes of diabetic retinopathy and major causes of vision loss in diabetic patients. Dr. Le’s laboratory has been using conditional gene knockout mice to reveal the cellular processes that lead to pathological neovascularization. One area of the research is to investigate the role of the retinal Müller cells in neovasculariztion, vascular permeability, inflammation, and retinal integrity. The other area of research is focused on the function of the outer blood-retina barrier in diabetic retinopathy.
2. Mechanisms of inherited retinal degeneration and age-related macular degeneration: The role of neural protective pathways in retinal survival is being investigated using retinal cell-specific gene knockout mice under normal and stress conditions. Another intensive area of research is to use an inducible gene inactivation system and investigate the role of the retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) and RPE-produced growth factors in geographic atrophy and choroidal neovascularization, the dry and wet forms of age-related macular degeneration.
3. Conditional gene expression in the mouse retina: Dr. Le’s laboratory is well-known for the establishment of temporal and spatial gene activation/inactivation systems in the retina, generated with inducible gene expression and Cre/lox technologies. In addition to the use of these systems to investigate the pathogenic mechanisms of inherited retinal degeneration and ocular vascular diseases in his laboratory, Dr. Le has been providing these genetic systems to many investigators around world to advance vision research.

Education

*Le Y, Bai Y, Zhu M, and Zheng L. (2010). Temporal requirement of RPE-derived VEGF in the formation of choroidal vasculature. J. Neurochem. (In press).

Zhu M, Zheng L, Ueki Y, Ash JD, *Le Y. (2010). Unexpected transcriptional activity of the human VMD2 promoter in retinal development. Adv Exp Med Biol. (In press).

Wang J, Xu X, Elliott MH, *Le Y. (2010). Müller cell-derived VEGF is essential for diabetes-induced retinal inflammation and vascular leakage. Diabetes (in revision).

*Le Y. (2010). Computer-assisted semi-quantitative analysis of choroidal density. Adv Exp Med Biol. (In press).

Keady B, Le Y, Pazour G (2010). Loss of IFT20 impairs cone opsin trafficking and leads to cone cell degeneration. PLoS Genetics (In revision).

Ueki Y, Chollangi S, Le Y, Ash JD. (2010). gp130 Activation in Müller Cells is not Essential for Photoreceptor Protection from Light Damage. Adv Exp Med Biol. In press.

Bai Y, Ma J, Guo J, Wang J, Zhu M, Chen Y, *Le Y. (2009). Müller cell-derived VEGF is a significant contributor to retinal neovascularization (cover article). J. Pathol. 219:446-454.

Haruta M, Bush RA, Kjellstrom S, Le Y, Camasamudram V, Sieving PA. (2009). Depleting Rac1 component of NADPH oxidase in mouse photoreceptors protects from photo-oxidative stress without affecting rod structure.Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 106:9397-9402.

Avasthi P, Watt C, Williams D, Le Y, Li S, Chen C, Frederick J, Baehr W. (2009). Heterotrimeric Kinesin-II Mediates Trafficking of Membrane Proteins to Cone, but not Rod Outer Segments. J. Neurosci 29:14287–14298.

Ueki Y, Le Y, Chollangi S, Müller W, Ash JD. (2009). Preconditioning-induced protection of photoreceptors requires cell autonomous activation of the signal-transducing receptor gp130. Proc Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106: 21389–21394.

Ueki Y, Ash JD, Zhu M, Zheng L, *Le Y. (2009). Expression of Cre recombinase in the retinal Müller cells (cover article).  Vis. Res. 49: 615–621 (doi:10.1016/j.visres.2009.01.012). NIHMSID: 93573.

Thiersch M, Lange C, Joly S, Heynen S, Le Y, Samardzija M, Grimm C. (2009). Retinal neuroprotection by hypoxic preconditioning is independent of HIF-1a expression in photoreceptors. European J. Neurosci 29: 2291–2302.

Li F, Wicker LD, Brush RS, Elliott MH, Le Y, Henry KA, Anderson AG, Zhao C, Sun X, Zhang K, Anderson RE. (2009). DHA does not protect ELOVL4 transgenic mice from retinal degeneration. Mol. Vis. 15:1185-1193 http://www.molvis.org/molvis/v15/a126.

Rajala A, Tanito M, Le Y, Kahn RC, Rajala RV. (2008). Loss of neuroprotective survival signal in mice lacking insulin receptor gene in rod photoreceptor cells. J. Biol Chem 283:19781-92.

*Le Y, Zheng W, Rao P, Zheng L, Anderson RE, Esumi N, Zack JD, Zhu M. (2008). Inducible expression of Cre recombinase in the RPE. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 49: 1248-1253.

*Le Y, Zheng L, Le Y, Rucker III EB, Anderson RE. (2008). Role of BCL-XL in rod and cone photoreceptor survival. Adv Exp Med Biol 613: 69-74.

*Le Y, Zheng L, Zheng W, Ash JD, Agbaga M, Zhu M, Anderson RE. (2006). Mouse opsin promoter directed Cre recombinase expression in transgenic mice Mol Vis 12: 389-398.

*Le Y, Ash JD, Al-Ubaidi MR, Chen Y, Ma J, and Anderson RE. (2006). Conditional knockout system in photoreceptor cells. Adv Exp Med Biol 572: 173-178.

*Corresponding Author