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REVIEW article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Signaling
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1524814
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Extracellular Vesicle Signaling and Mitochondrial Metabolism in Aging and Aging-Related Diseases View all articles
The Role of the Hippo/YAP Pathway in the Physiological Activities and Lesions of Lens Epithelial Cells
Provisionally accepted- 1 Peking University Third Hospital, Haidian, China
- 2 Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China
- 3 Beijing Key Laboratory of Restoration of Damaged Ocular Nerve, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China
The Hippo/YAP pathway is a signaling pathway that plays an important role in cell proliferation, survival, differentiation, cell fate determination, organ size, and tissue homeostasis. Lens epithelial cells (LECs) , located on the anterior surface of the lens , are the parental cells responsible for growth and development of the transparent ocular lens. During lens development, LECs undergo a process of differentiation where they exit the cell cycle and transform into lens fiber cells (LFCs), which constitute the majority of the lens structure. YAP is involved in the proliferation and differentiation of LECs, the maintenance of nuclear morphology, cell polarity, cell apical polarity complex, and connexin morphology. The role of the ordered arrangement of LFCs has been demonstrated in several animal studies, and Yap1 heterozygous deletion mice exhibit cataracts. The mechanism of the Hippo/YAP pathway in the physiological activities and lesions of LECs is complex, which is of great significance to understanding the development of the lens and the pathogenesis of lens-related diseases.
Keywords: Hippo/Yap pathway, lens epithelial cells, Crystalline lens, Opthalmological diseases, Cataract
Received: 08 Nov 2024; Accepted: 21 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tan, Liu, Jiang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xuemin Li, Peking University Third Hospital, Haidian, China
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