In situ versus whole-globe harvesting of corneal tissue from remote donor sites: effects on initial tissue quality.

Purpose: There are 2 methods of corneal tissue procurement currently in widespread use: in situ extraction of the corneal button directly to preservation media and whole-globe enucleation of eyes with removal of the button to preservation media at a later time. This study evaluates the effects of these 2 procurement procedures on the initial quality of donor corneal tissue.

Methods: Slit-lamp examination results and endothelial cell counts were compared for a total of 468 donor corneas harvested at 2 remote locations: one where in situ procurement was practiced and the other that used whole-globe enucleation procedures.

Molecular genetic analysis of the Idd4 locus implicates the IFN response in type 1 diabetes susceptibility in nonobese diabetic mice.

High-resolution mapping and identification of the genes responsible for type 1 diabetes (T1D) has proved difficult because of the multigenic etiology and low penetrance of the disease phenotype in linkage studies. Mouse congenic strains have been useful in refining Idd susceptibility loci in the NOD mouse model and providing a framework for identification of genes underlying complex autoimmune syndromes. Previously, we used NOD and a nonobese diabetes-resistant strain to map the susceptibility to T1D to the Idd4 locus on chromosome 11.

AII amacrine cells express the MT1 melatonin receptor in human and macaque retina.

AII amacrine cells are critical interneurons in the rod pathway of mammalian retina, active primarily in dim lighting conditions. Melatonin, a neuromodulator produced at night in the retina, is believed to induce retinal adaptation to dim lighting conditions in most vertebrate species examined to date, including humans. We hypothesized that melatonin may influence retinal light adaptation by acting on AII cells directly and thus investigated whether melatonin receptors were expressed in AII neurons.

MT(1) melatonin receptor in the human retina: expression and localization.

Purpose: Melatonin's function in human vision is far from understood, in part because of the lack of information on its cellular targets. Therefore, expression and localization of the MT(1) melatonin receptor in human retina was examined.

Methods: Postmortem nonpathologic human eyes from nine donors were investigated, three by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for MT(1) and MT(2) transcripts and six by immunocytochemistry, using a peptide-specific anti-MT(1) receptor antibody.