Publications by authors named "Alejos M"

Introduction: Anterior ischemia optic neuropathy is defined as ischemia of the disc optic papilla nerve. The aetiology is multifactorial and causes ischemia of the optic disc and apoptosis of the nerve cells of the retina.

Objective: To study the retina of patients with anterior ischemia optic neuropathy by means of the electroretinogram pattern (PERG) to assess the function of ganglion cells of the inner layers of the retina.

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Background: While studying cutaneous leishmaniasis in the central part of western Venezuela, we found four cases of disseminated American cutaneous leishmaniasis, three from the Lara State and one from Portuguesa State.

Methods: A clinical history was taken for each of these patients, followed by microscopic examination of the Giemsastained smears from their cutaneous lesions and by a Montenegro skin test. Serum from a skin lesion were grown in Novy-MacNeal-Nicolle medium (NNN).

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Between 1975 and 1987, epidemiological studies were carried out in several rural and urban communities in the central part of western Venezuela, especially in the state of Lara. 115 positive cultures were obtained from human cases and identified by their reactivity patterns to a cross-panel of specific monoclonal antibodies using a radioimmune binding assay; 53 were Leishmania venezuelensis and 62 were L. braziliensis.

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It has been shown by in vitro translation of polyadenylated messenger RNAs (poly(A)+ mRNAs) that the mRNAs encoding both alpha and beta tubulin isotypes are present at much higher relative levels in the developing rat brain than they are in the adult, suggesting that the requirements for tubulin subunits vary with cell type and/or with the developmental stages of a particular cell type. The postnatally developing rat cerebellum, with its readily identifiable cell populations that perform the gamut of developmental tasks, is a suitable model for analyzing specific cellular mRNA distributions during development. In this report, by in situ hybridization techniques it is shown that, by comparison to total cellular poly(A)+ mRNA levels, there is relatively more of the total beta tubulin mRNAs in mitotically active external granule layer cells than in those in the internal granule layer.

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We have devised techniques with which to detect specific proteins as well as mRNAs in individual cells of the nervous system. We have localized proteins to specific cells in sections of the neonatal rat cerebellum by immunofluorescence and in the same cells have localized mRNAs by in situ hybridization. The specific protein identified was glial fibrillary acidic protein.

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