[Eye banks and available transplants].

Background: Eye banks have procured, processed and stored donor corneas for decades. In parallel, new techniques have emerged employing allogeneic transplantation of various cells and tissues from the eye banks. This progress is a consequence of increased knowledge of stem cells, cell kinetics and immunological aspects and improved techniques for cell culturing, tissue storage and microsurgery.

Regeneration with proliferation of the endothelium of cultured human donor corneas with extended postmortem time.

Purpose: To examine the endothelium of donor corneas with extended postmortem time for survival and reparative mechanisms in an eye bank organ culture storage system.

Methods: We obtained 14 pairs of donor corneas with a postmortem time ranging from 29 to 163 hours. One cornea of a pair was immediately fixed for the study of structural changes postmortem and to serve as a control.

Regeneration of the epithelium in organ-cultured donor corneas with extended post-mortem time.

Purpose: The maximum post-mortem time limit for obtaining donor corneas varies between eye banks. It is not known for how long a time the epithelial cells survive post-mortem, nor is it known if donor corneas with extended post-mortem time are able to regenerate the epithelium. Therefore, we wanted to examine the epithelium in donor corneas for regenerative ability during storage in an eye bank organ culture system.

Effect of limbal explant orientation on the histology, phenotype, ultrastructure and barrier function of cultured limbal epithelial cells.

Purpose: To compare the histology, phenotype, ultrastructure and barrier function of cultured limbal epithelial cells using two explant culture protocols.

Methods: Epithelial cells were cultured for 16 days from limbal explants, positioned with either the stromal side (stromal group) or the epithelial side (epithelial group) on intact amniotic membranes. The cultured epithelium (n = 56) was examined using light microscopy, immunohistochemistry for K3, Cx43, ABCG2 and p63 expression, Western blot analysis of DeltaNp63alpha, transmission electron microscopy, a horseradish peroxidase (HRP) permeability assay and scanning electron microscopy.

Donor corneas for transplantation: a scanning electron microscopic study of the epithelium.

Purpose: Donor corneas are processed in eye banks and used for transplantation as a standard routine. The maximum time limit post-mortem for harvesting donor tissue varies greatly between eye banks. This study aimed to examine the corneal epithelium for structural changes post-mortem.

Rapid determination of polyether marine toxins using liquid chromatography-multiple tandem mass spectrometry.

The diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxins, okadaic acid (OA), dinophysistoxins (DTX); pectenotoxin-2 (PTX2) and pectenotoxin-2 seco acids, were determined in marine phytoplankton, Dinophysis acuta, and mussels (Mytilus edulis) collected along the southwest coast of Ireland. Liquid chromatography-multiple tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was employed for the simultaneous determination of a series of marine toxins with large polarity differences. Separation of five DSP toxins was achieved on a C18 column (Luna-2, 150 mm x 2.

First evidence of an extensive northern European distribution of azaspiracid poisoning (AZP) toxins in shellfish.

Azaspiracids have recently been identified as the toxins responsible for a series of human intoxications in Europe since 1995, following the consumption of cultured mussels (Mytilus edulis) from the west coast of Ireland. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometric (LC-MS) methods have been applied in the study reported here to investigate the new human toxic syndrome, azaspiracid poisoning. Separation of azaspiracid (AZA1) and its analogues, 8-methylazaspiracid (AZA2) and 22-demethylazaspiracid (AZA3), was achieved using reversed-phase LC and coupled, via an electrospray ionisation source, to an ion-trap mass spectrometer.