Foveal avascular zone enlargement correlates with visual acuity decline in patients with diabetic retinopathy.

Purpose: The foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area has been explored as a measure of macular ischemia in diabetic retinopathy (DR) but is limited by its wide variability even in healthy individuals. We hypothesized that FAZ enlargement, which we defined as the difference between the functional FAZ (on optical coherence tomography angiography; OCTA) and structural FAZ (en face OCT), may be a more accurate metric of macular ischemia. In this study, we test the hypothesis that FAZ enlargement is associated with decreased best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and low luminance visual acuity (LLVA) and performs better than the functional FAZ as a marker of vision loss.

Calcium signals act through histone deacetylase to mediate pronephric kidney morphogenesis.

Background: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease is the most common monogenetic kidney disorder and is linked to mutations in PKD1 and PKD2. PKD2, a Ca -conducting TRP channel enriched in ciliated cells and gated by extracellular signals, is necessary to activate the multifunctional Ca calmodulin-dependent protein kinase type 2 (CaMK-II), enabling kidney morphogenesis and cilia stability.

Results: In this study, antisense morpholino oligonucleotides and pharmacological compounds were employed to investigate the roles of class II HDAC family members (HDAC 4, 5, and 6) in Zebrafish kidney development.