Histopathological assessments reveal retinal vascular changes, inflammation, and gliosis in patients with lethal COVID-19.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess for histopathological changes within the retina and the choroid and determine the long-term sequelae of the SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods: Eyes from seven COVID-19-positive and six similar age-matched control donors with a negative test for SARS-CoV-2 were assessed. Globes were evaluated ex vivo with macroscopic, SLO and OCT imaging.

Histopathological assessments reveal retinal vascular changes, inflammation and gliosis in patients with lethal COVID-19.

Purpose: To assess for histopathological changes within the retina and the choroid and determine the long-term sequelae of the SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Design: Comparative analysis of human eyes.

Subjects: Eleven donor eyes from COVID-19 positive donors and similar age-matched donor eyes from patients with a negative test for SARS-CoV-2 were assessed.

A human model of Batten disease shows role of CLN3 in phagocytosis at the photoreceptor-RPE interface.

Mutations in CLN3 lead to photoreceptor cell loss in CLN3 disease, a lysosomal storage disorder characterized by childhood-onset vision loss, neurological impairment, and premature death. However, how CLN3 mutations cause photoreceptor cell death is not known. Here, we show that CLN3 is required for phagocytosis of photoreceptor outer segment (POS) by retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells, a cellular process essential for photoreceptor survival.

Oxidative stress in the retina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE): Role of aging, and DJ-1.

High levels of oxidative radicals generated by daily light exposure and high metabolic rate suggest that the antioxidant machinery of the retina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is crucial for their survival. DJ-1 is a redox-sensitive protein that has been shown to have neuroprotective function in the brain in Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we analyzed the role of DJ-1 in the retina during oxidative stress and aging.

Geographic Atrophy: Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy, Histology, and Inflammation in the Region of Expanding Lesions.

Purpose: To describe the pathology of AMD in eyes with geographic atrophy (GA) using confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) blue light autofluorescence (BAF), and near-infrared (IR) AF and to correlate it with the histology and immunohistochemistry analysis at the margins of the GA lesion.

Methods: Enucleated, fixed eyes from seventeen donors with GA were imaged and analyzed by BAF-SLO, IRAF-SLO, and by fundus macroscopy (FM). Tissue from the margins of the GA lesions was cut and processed for resin embedding and histology or cryosectioning and fluorescence in the green and far-red channels, and immunohistochemistry to assess markers of inflammation.