New tools to monitor infection and biofilms in .

Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance is a growing health problem. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a pathogen of major concern because of its multidrug resistance and global threat, especially in health-care settings. The pathogenesis and drug resistance of depends on its ability to form biofilms, making infections chronic and untreatable as the biofilm protects against antibiotics and host immunity.

A gradient of matrix-bound FGF-2 and perlecan is available to lens epithelial cells.

Fibroblast growth factors play a key role in regulating lens epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation via an anteroposterior gradient that exists between the aqueous and vitreous humours. FGF-2 is the most important for lens epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation. It has been proposed that the presentation of FGF-2 to the lens epithelial cells involves the lens capsule as a source of matrix-bound FGF-2.

Expression and localisation of apical junctional complex proteins in lens epithelial cells.

The lens epithelium possesses an apical junctional complex (AJC) comprising adherens and tight junctions (AJs and TJs) and yet several key structural components and associated regulatory proteins have not been identified or localised in these cells. Here we determine the subcellular distribution of the archetypal TJ markers (ZO-1, claudin-1, and occludin) and TJ-associated cell polarity proteins (aPKC, Par3 and Par6beta) with AJ markers, E- and N-cadherin. As seen in other polarised epithelia, all these markers were located by confocal immunofluorescence microscopy to the apical ends of the lateral plasma membranes of bovine lens epithelial cells at sites of cell-cell interaction.

Lens cells: more than meets the eye.

Lens cells originate from the head ectoderm and differentiate into an avascular organ constituted from two contiguous cell subpopulations of very different morphology. Lens cells, together with corneal cells, are responsible for the transmission and focusing of light onto the retina. Loss of transparency within the lens, via disruption of membrane transport or protein aggregation, results in cataract.

FGF-2 release from the lens capsule by MMP-2 maintains lens epithelial cell viability.

The lens is an avascular tissue, separated from the aqueous and vitreous humors by its own extracellular matrix, the lens capsule. Here we demonstrate that the lens capsule is a source of essential survival factors for lens epithelial cells. Primary and immortalized lens epithelial cells survive in low levels of serum and are resistant to staurosporine-induced apoptosis when they remain in contact with the lens capsule.