Primary ectopic breast carcinoma: a case report.

Background: Ectopic breast tissue is present in 2-6% of women. Ectopic mammary tissue can experience physiological changes and the same pathological processes as the eutopic breast. Ectopic breast cancer represents an uncommon condition accounting for 0.

Retinoic acid receptor (RAR)-alpha is not critically required for mediating retinoic acid effects in the developing mouse retina.

Purpose: To determine the functional contribution of retinoic acid receptor (RAR)-alpha in the developing murine neural retina, through a phenotypic analysis of the corresponding null mutants.

Methods: RARalpha mutant (Rara(-/-)) mice were compared with wild-type littermates at several stages of pre- and postnatal development. An RA-response element (RARE)-containing reporter transgene was used to assess the contribution of RARalpha to retinoid signaling in the retina.

The toxicity of the PrP106-126 prion peptide on cultured photoreceptors correlates with the prion protein distribution in the mammalian and human retina.

In patients affected by Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and in animals affected by transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, retinal functions are altered, and major spongiform changes are observed in the outer plexiform layer where photoreceptors have their synaptic terminals. In the present study, the prion protein PrP(c) was found to form aggregates in rod photoreceptor terminals from both rat and human retina, whereas no labeling was observed in cone photoreceptors. Discrete staining was also detected in the inner plexiform layer where the prion protein was located at human amacrine cell synapses.

Distribution of vesicular glutamate transporters in rat and human retina.

Central nervous system neurons have traditionally been thought to express exclusively membrane transporters and/or vesicular transporters for their transmitter. Three vesicular glutamate transporters have recently been cloned: BNPI/VGLUT1 (a brain-specific sodium-dependent inorganic phosphate (Pi) transporter), and its homologs DNPI/VGLUT2 (differentiation-associated sodium-dependent Pi transporter) and VGLUT3. We investigated the subcellular distributions of these three vesicular transporters in rat and human retina.

Excessive activation of cyclic nucleotide-gated channels contributes to neuronal degeneration of photoreceptors.

In different animal models, photoreceptor degeneration was correlated to an abnormal increase in cGMP concentration. The cGMP-induced photoreceptor toxicity was demonstrated by applying the phosphodiesterase inhibitor 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine on retinal explants. To assess the role of cGMP-gated channels in this cGMP toxicity, the Ca(2+) channel blockers verapamil and L- and D-diltiazem, which block cGMP-gated channels with different efficacies, were applied to in vitro animal models of photoreceptor degeneration.