Apoptosis in cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy.

To test the hypothesis that an apoptotic process plays a role in the pathogenesis of cerebral lesions in cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL), we examined samples from frontal, temporal, insular, and occipital regions, basal ganglia, and cerebellum from 4 patients with CADASIL, 2 with Binswanger disease, and 3 controls. Apoptotic cells were identified using in situ end labeling and activated caspase 3 immunostaining. Immunolabeling for Notch3, the beta-amyloid protein precursor, and phosphorylated neurofilament protein was performed on successive sections.

Corneal epithelial cultures generated from organ-cultured limbal tissue: factors influencing epithelial cell growth.

Purpose: To explore the in vitro proliferative potential of human limbal epithelial cells after 31 degrees C organ-culture storage and to investigate putative factors influencing it.

Methods: 185 cultures of limbal explants were carried-out either from full-thickness explants (n = 102) or from enzymatically dissociated cells (n = 83) seeded on a feeder layer of human keratocytes. Epithelial outgrowth was assessed by phase contrast microscopy using a computerized image analysis software.

Cellular and molecular tunnels surrounding the forebrain commissures of human fetuses.

Glial cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules surround developing fiber tracts and are implicated in axonal pathfinding. These and other molecules are produced by these strategically located glial cells and have been shown to influence axonal growth across the midline in rodents. We searched for similar cellular and molecular structures surrounding the telencephalic commissures of fetal human brains.

[Amniotic membrane transplantation for the treatment severe acanthamoeba keratitis].

Background: It is now possible to treat ocular surface disorders by means of amniotic membrane transplantation. We performed a study to determine the efficacy of this technique in the treatment of severe Acanthamoeba keratitis.

Methods: We studied six patients with severe, painful, nonhealing Acanthamoeba keratitis who underwent one or two amniotic membrane transplantation procedures between February 2001 and January 2003.

Corneal keloid: clinical, ultrasonographic, and ultrastructural characteristics.

A 70-year-old man was referred to us with a 2-year, progressive, painless decrease in visual acuity in the right eye. Ocular history included extraction of a traumatic cataract with a transclerally fixated posterior chamber intraocular lens. Slitlamp examination showed a raised, white, vascularized mass covering the cornea.

Candida parapsilosis keratitis.

Purpose: To present clinical, microbiologic, and histopathologic features of keratitis due to Candida parapsilosis.

Methods: Clinicomicrobiologic evaluation of four patients (four eyes) with culture-proven C. parapsilosis keratitis.