The role of PI3K-Akt (Jacot and Sherris, 2011; Ma et al., 2022), Ras (Wang et al., 2015), MAPK (Supanji et al., 2013; Moustardas et al., 2023), and Jak–STAT (Chen et al., 2016, 2019; Hombrebueno et al., 2020; Cho et al., 2022) pathways in inflammatory and degeneration retinal diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration has been well appreciated. The gene discussed is SOAT1; the disease is diabetic retinopathy.