BACE1 in the retina: a sensitive biomarker for monitoring early pathological changes in Alzheimer's disease.

Because of a lack of sensitive biomarkers, the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) cannot be made prior to symptom manifestation. Therefore, it is crucial to identify novel biomarkers for the presymptomatic diagnosis of AD. While brain lesions are a major feature of AD, retinal pathological changes also occur in patients.

The correlation between rat retinal nerve fiber layer thickness around optic disc by using optical coherence tomography and histological measurements.

Aim: To explore the correlation between the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness by using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and by histological measurements in normal adult rats and optic nerve transected rats.

Methods: The RNFL thickness of 36 rats was scanned in a circle 3.46mm far from the optic disc by OCT.

Differential neuronal expression of receptor interacting protein 3 in rat retina: involvement in ischemic stress response.

Background: Receptor-interacting protein 3 (RIP3), a member of RIP family proteins, has been shown to participate in programmed necrosis or necroptosis in cell biology studies. Evidence suggests that necroptosis may be a mode of neuronal death in the retina.

Results: In the present study we determined the expression of RIP3 in normal rat retina and its changes following acute high intraocular pressure (aHIOP).

Differential changes of local blood supply in rat retinae are involved in the selective loss of retinal ganglion cells following the acute high intraocular pressure.

Purpose: To detect changes in local blood supply to central, middle, and peripheral retina following acute high intraocular pressure and to investigate the effects of changes in local retinal blood supply on the selective loss of retinal ganglion cells.

Methods: The acute high intraocular pressure model of Sprague-Dawley rats was established by increasing the anterior chamber pressure to 110 mmHg via a normal saline perfusion system. Blood supply to the central, middle, and peripheral retina at 3, 6, and 12 h, and 1, 3, 7, and 14 d following induction of acute high intraocular pressure was detected by using gelatin-ink perfusion and fluorescent microsphere injection.

[A novel mutation of CYP1B1 gene in primary congenital glaucoma].

Objective: To investigate the distribution of the CYP1B1 (Cytochrome P450, family 1, subfamily B, polypeptide 1) gene mutations in primary congenital glaucoma (PCG) in Hunan Province.

Methods: Case-control study. Thirteen cases of PCG from different districts of Hunan province were collected in this study.

Synaptophysin expression in rat retina following acute high intraocular pressure.

In response to injury, synapse alteration may occur earlier than the changes in the cell body of neurons. Although retinal ganglion cell death and thinning of the inner part of retina were found after acute high intraocular pressure (HIOP), the structural and functional changes of synapses in the retina remain unknown. In the present study, we investigated the protein and mRNA expression of synaptophysin (SYN), an important molecule closely related to synaptic activities, synaptogenesis and synaptic plasticity.