Clinicopathologic correlation of intraretinal microvascular abnormalities.

Purpose: To define the cross-sectional morphology of intraretinal microvascular abnormalities, which previously have been described only in terms of trypsin digestion.

Material/methods: Fourteen vascular lesions of five patients with diabetic retinopathy were identified on fundus photographs and/or fluorescein angiograms and classified as intraretinal microvascular abnormalities. Eyes of these patients were obtained after the patients' deaths.

Melanocytes and iris color. Electron microscopic findings.

Objective: To quantitatively associate iris color with melanocyte pigment content.

Methods: Autopsy eyes were classified as uniform-blue, uniform-hazel, or uniform-brown or showing a darker peripupillary ring. Using electron microscopic images and computerized image analysis, area, number, and size of mature melanosomes within the perinuclear cytoplasmic area only or within perinuclear and peripheral cytoplasmic areas of the superficial stromal melanocytes combined were measured.

Renin mRNA is synthesized locally in rat ocular tissues.

Components of the Renin Angiotensin System (RAS) have been detected in ocular tissues and fluids. The source of the ocular RAS proteins is unknown but possibilities include diffusion or leakage from the systemic circulation, specific uptake from the blood, or local synthesis. We have used RT-PCR and in situ hybridization (ISH) to show that renin mRNA is present in ocular tissues from 3 strains of rats.

Long-term genome stability and minimal genotypic and phenotypic alterations in HPV16 E7-, but not E6-, immortalized human uroepithelial cells.

Parameters of genome instability and morphological alterations associated with cell transformation were studied in an isogeneic set of clonal human uroepithelial cell (HUC) lines immortalized by the human papilloma virus 16 (HPV16) E6 and/or E7 gene(s). HPV16 E6 binds p53, leading to rapid degradation of p53, whereas E7 binds and alters pRb and other proteins. We report that two independent E7-immortalized HUC lines showed minimal phenotypic or genotypic alterations, except that both lines contained amplification of 20q DNA sequences and a greater polyploidization at an early passage.

Ocular renin angiotensin: EM immunocytochemical localization of prorenin.

Prorenin (PR) was localized by electron microscopic (EM) immunostaining of cryo-ultramicrotomy sections of human ciliary body and correlated with light microscopic immunostaining. Both layers of the ciliary epithelium contained the prohormone. However, density was much higher in the adjacent extracellular spaces, particularly in the vitreous cortex.