REAGENT or RESOURCE	SOURCE	IDENTIFIER
Antibodies
Rabbit anti-GFAP	Abcam	Cat# ab68428; RRID:AB_1209224
Rabbit anti-GS	Abcam	Cat# ab228590
Rabbit anti-NeuN	Abcam	Cat# ab177487; RRID:AB_2532109
Rabbit anti-TUJ1	Abcam	Cat# ab18207; RRID:AB_444319
Rabbit anti-PKCα	Abcam	Cat# ab32376; RRID:AB_777294
Mouse anti-Rhodopsin	Abcam	Cat# ab5417; RRID:AB_304874
Mouse anti-Calbindin	Santa Cruz	Cat# sc-365360; RRID:AB_10841576
Mouse anti-Calretinin	Santa Cruz	Cat# sc-365956; RRID:AB_10846469
Rabbit anti-Angiogenin	proteintech	Cat# 18302-1-AP; RRID:AB_2274028
Rabbit anti-Dicer	abcam	Cat# ab227518
Rabbit anti-β-Αctin	ZEN BIO	Cat# 380624; RRID:AB_2893488
Alexa Fluor 488 goat anti-mouse IgG	Thermo Fisher Scientific	Cat# A32723; RRID:AB_2633275
Alexa Fluor 594 goat anti-mouse IgG	Thermo Fisher Scientific	Cat# A-11005; RRID:AB_2534073
Alexa Fluor 488 goat anti-rabbit IgG	Thermo Fisher Scientific	Cat# A-11008; RRID:AB_143165
Alexa Fluor 594 goat anti-rabbit IgG	Thermo Fisher Scientific	Cat# A-11012; RRID:AB_2534079
Biological samples
Fibrovascular membranes tissue samples from DR patients	the Affiliated Eye Hospital of Nanjing Medical University	N/A
Epiretinal membranes tissue samples from patients with idiopathic macular holes	the Affiliated Eye Hospital of Nanjing Medical University	N/A
Aqueous humor samples from DR patients	the Affiliated Eye Hospital of Nanjing Medical University	N/A
Aqueous humor samples from cataract patients	the Affiliated Eye Hospital of Nanjing Medical University	N/A
Chemicals, peptides, and recombinant proteins
Lipofectamine 3000	Life Technologies	Cat# 13778150
STZ	Biofroxx	Cat# 2196GR001
Evans blue dye	Sigma Aldrich	Cat# E2129
Trypsin	BioFroxx	Cat# 1004GR025
Glycogen Periodic Acid Schiff (PAS/Hematoxylin) Stain Kit	Solarbio	Cat# G1281
OCT medium	Thermo Scientific	Cat# 6502
Papain Dissociation System	Worthington	Cat# K003150
DMEM	Gibco	Cat# 21013024
FBS	Gibco	Cat# 10099141
0.025% trypsin	Sigma	Cat# T9201
Insulin	Sigma-Aldrich	Cat# I6634
Progesterone	Sigma-Aldrich	Cat# P0130
Selenite	Sigma-Aldrich	Cat# S5261
Transferrin	Sigma-Aldrich	Cat# T8158
Forskolin	Sigma-Aldrich	Cat# F6886
CNTF	PeproTech	Cat# 450-13
TRIzol	Life Technologies	Cat# 15596026
PowerUp™ SYBR™ Green Master Mix	Thermo Fisher Scientific	Cat# A25742
CCK-8	Beyotime	Cat# C0038
Calcein-AM	AAT Bioquest	Cat# 22002
PI	Biofroxx	Cat# 1246MG100
Rhodamine123	Solarbio	Cat# R8030
Methyl cellulose solution	Sigma-Aldrich	Cat# M0512-100G
Basement membrane matrix	Coring	Cat# 356234
Critical commercial assays
rtStar™ tRF and tiRNA pretreatment kit	Arraystar	Cat# AS-FS-005
rtStar™ First-strand cDNA Synthesis kit	Arraystar	Cat# AS-FS-003
SuperScript IV First-Strand Synthesis System	Thermo Fisher Scientific	Cat# 18091050
BeyoClick™EdU detection kit	Beyotime	Cat# C0071S
In situ Cell Death Detection Kit	Roche	Cat# 12156792910
Experimental models: Cell lines
HRVEC	CSC	N/A
human retinal pericytes	CSC	N/A
ARPE-19	ATCC	RRID:CVCL_0145
Experimental models: Organisms/strains
C57BL/6J mice	Animal Core Facility of Nanjing Medical University	N/A
BKS-Leprem2Cd479/Gpt (db/db) mice	GemPharmatech	strain NO.T002407
Oligonucleotides
Primers for qRT-PCR, see Table S4	Generay	N/A
Sequence information for the relevant RNAs, see Table S3	RiboBio	N/A
Software and algorithms
GraphPad Prism 8	GraphPad Software	https://www.graphpad.com/
Adobe Illustrator	Adobe	https://www.adobe.com/cn/
ImageJ	National Institutes of Health (NIH)	https://imagej.net/ij/index.html