The effects of a slow release GnRH agonist implant on male rabbits.

Surgical castration is done in male pet rabbits for reproduction control, to reduce inter-male aggression and to control hyper-sexuality, territory marking and aggression against humans. Alternatives to surgical castration are requested because of a relatively great anaesthetic risk in rabbits. Long-term application of a GnRH agonist implant results in a fully reversible "hormonal" castration in male dogs, cats, boars and many other species.

Redox-regulated growth factor survival signaling.

Significance: Once the thought of as unwanted byproducts of cellular respiration in eukaryotes, reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been shown to facilitate essential physiological roles. It is now understood that ROS are critical mediators of intracellular signaling. Control of signal transduction downstream of growth factor receptors by ROS is a complex process whose details are only recently coming to light.

Reactive oxygen species regulate prosurvival ERK1/2 signaling and bFGF expression in gliosis within the retina.

Purpose: Gliosis is the response of glial cells within retinal tissue to injury. It can be beneficial in the short term, but if the response is extended it can lead to scar formation, which contributes to blindness. Phosphorylation of extracellular signal regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) is considered to be a hallmark event of gliosis, but the factors involved throughout its associated signaling pathway remain poorly understood, particularly in the retina.

Preventing retinal apoptosis--is there a common therapeutic theme?

There is an urgent need for therapies for retinal diseases; retinitis pigmentosa sufferers have no treatment options available and those targeted at other retinopathies have shown limited effectiveness. The process of programmed cell death or apoptosis although complex, remains a possible target for the treatment of retinal diseases. Having identified apoptosis in the vertebrate retina in populations of immature neurons as an essential part of development it was proposed that re-activation of these developmental cell death pathways might provide insight into the death mechanisms operating in retinal diseases.

Monopolar vs. bipolar subretinal stimulation-an in vitro study.

This study uses an in vitro rd10 mouse model to quantify and compare the ability of the monopolar and the (concentric) bipolar electrode configurations for subretinal stimulation. To allow for results which can be directly compared an identical region of the retina was stimulated due to the circumstance that the bipolar electrode configuration allows also for monopolar stimulation, if the concentric counter-electrode is set potential-free (floating). A ganglion cell, located centrally over the bipolar electrode configuration was selected to extracellularly record action potentials during stimulation.