Resistance force for intraocular lens insertion through lens cartridges and syringe-type injectors.

Purpose: To measure and compare the resistance force for intraocular lens (IOL) insertion using 5 syringe-type injector systems.

Setting: Tokyo Medical University and laboratory in Kowa Co., Tokyo, Japan.

The E3 ligase synoviolin controls body weight and mitochondrial biogenesis through negative regulation of PGC-1β.

Obesity is a major global public health problem, and understanding its pathogenesis is critical for identifying a cure. In this study, a gene knockout strategy was used in post-neonatal mice to delete synoviolin (Syvn)1/Hrd1/Der3, an ER-resident E3 ubiquitin ligase with known roles in homeostasis maintenance. Syvn1 deficiency resulted in weight loss and lower accumulation of white adipose tissue in otherwise wild-type animals as well as in genetically obese (ob/ob and db/db) and adipose tissue-specific knockout mice as compared to control animals.

Cell adhesion and glistening formation in hybrid copolymer intraocular lenses.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the cell adhesion and glistening formation properties of various foldable intraocular lenses (IOLs) in vitro. Three conventional hydrophobic methacrylate acrylic (MA) IOLs, a hydrophilic hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) IOL and a hybrid MA/HEMA copolymer IOL were investigated for immunologically activated cell adhesion and for formation of glistenings resulting from cavitation, by analysis of digital images using NIH Image J PC software. The MA IOLs exhibited a low level of adhering cells but a high level of glistening formation, the HEMA IOL exhibited the reverse tendency, and the MA/HEMA IOL exhibited a low level of both, thus indicating that hybrid MA/HEMA IOLs are less susceptible than HEMA IOLs to cell adhesion and less susceptible than MA IOLs to glistening formation.

Successful closure of large blunt macular chorioretinal rupture: a case report.

The authors present a rare case of large chorioretinal rupture caused by blunt traumatic injury of the globe. A 22-year-old woman sustained a blunt injury to her left eye. The best-corrected Snellen visual acuity was 2/20 in her left eye, and hyphema and vitreous hemorrhage were noted.

[Terminal care for one-person household].

In addition to visitor medical-examination service, Mutsumi-cho clinic (Minami-ku, Yokohama-city) started a home care service in October 2008. The number of one-person elderly house-hold is 8,483 (about 10%) out of 84,399 house-hold in Minami-ku where 200,000 people reside. We report here our experience in the terminal care of one-person elderly person who lives at home.

Adhesive retention of sodium hyaluronate ophthalmic viscosurgical devices in an acrylic tube model and in porcine-eye corneal endothelium with different irrigation rates.

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of irrigation rates on the adhesive retention of sodium hyaluronate ophthalmic viscosurgical devices (OVDs) by observation in an acrylic tube system designed to model the epithelial wall and in a porcine-eye experiment.

Setting: Kohseichuo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

Methods: Commercial sodium hyaluronate OVDs differing in molecular weight were visualized with fluorescein powder.

Effects of dioxin on vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) production in the retina associated with choroidal neovascularization.

Purpose: Cigarette smoking is the most consistent risk factor for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), especially the choroidal neovascularization (CNV)-mediated exudative type. Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds have various effects on living organisms and are also contained in cigarette smoke. However, the effects of dioxins on the eye remain elusive.

[STD in the eye].

In this paper, we review sexually transmitted diseases (STD) involving the eye. Recently conjunctivitis due to Chlamydia trachomatis in children and adults is increasing, and that of Neisseria gonorrhoeae resistant to multiple antibiotics has attracted special attention in our country. Syphilis has many ocular manifestations such as keratitis, iridocyclitis, retinochorioiditis, and neuritis, etc.

The additive effects on intraocular pressure of combining nipradilol 0.25% and latanoprost 0.005% ophthalmic solutions: a prospective, randomized, multicenter study.

Purpose: To investigate the effectiveness of combining nipradilol 0.25% and latanoprost 0.005% ophthalmic solutions in improving the intraocular pressures (IOPs) in glaucoma patients.

Preoperative disinfection of the conjunctival sac with antibiotics and iodine compounds: a prospective randomized multicenter study.

Purpose: To compare disinfection by povidone-iodine (PI) solution with that by polyvinyl alcohol-iodine (PAI) solution in preoperative eyewash and to assess the optimal duration of the preoperative application of 0.5% levofloxacin (LVFX) ophthalmic solution.

Methods: Two-hundred-seventy-two elderly cataract patients who had undergone phacoemulsification aspiration with intraocular lens insertion at 12 clinical facilities in Japan were randomized into three groups: 3-day, 1-day, and 1-h preoperative application of 0.

Effect of gauge thickness on wound-width measurements in microincision cataract surgery.

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of gauge thickness on wound-width measurement values in microincision cataract surgery (MICS).

Setting: Kosei Chuo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

Methods: For intraocular lens (IOL) implantation, the incision was enlarged with 1 of 2 knives of different widths.

Proteomic surveillance of retinal autoantigens in endogenous uveitis: implication of esterase D and brain-type creatine kinase as novel autoantigens.

Purpose: Various retinal proteins are newly exposed to immune system in a process of tissue destructive endogenous uveitis. Some of such proteins could be autoantigens that extend the ocular inflammation in human endogenous uveitis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the possibility of such spreading of autoantigens in endogenous uveoretinitis using a proteomic approach.

Phenoxazine derivative, 2-amino-4,4alpha-dihydro-4alpha,7-dimethyl-3H-phenoxazine-3-one suppresses growth of human retinoblastoma cell line Y79 in vitro and in vivo.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo antitumor effects of the 2-amino-4,4alpha-dihydro-4alpha,7-dimethyl-3H-phenoxazine-3-one (Phx-1) on the human retinoblastoma cell line Y79. The in vitro effects of Phx-1 on cell viability and apoptosis of the human retinoblastoma Y79 cells, were studied by using colorimetric and flow-cytometric methods. The in vivo antitumor effects of Phx-1 on the human retinoblastoma Y79 cells subcutaneously transplanted in BALB/c nude mice were studied, examining the tumor size, the adverse effects on the mice and the histopathological evaluations including hematoxylin and eosin and immunohistochemical staining in the mass of tumors of human retinoblastoma Y79 cells isolated from the mice.

Relationship between retinal vein occlusion and carotid artery lesions.

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and carotid artery lesions.

Methods: For patients with RVO who presented to the Ophthalmology Department of Tokyo Medical University Hospital between 2000 and 2003, carotid artery evaluation was possible on 58 eyes of 57 patients aged 51 years to 88 years (mean, 70.1 years).

Blockade of the OX40 ligand prolongs corneal allograft survival.

Although corneal transplantation is one of the most common tissue transplantations and is known to have a high graft acceptance rate, occasional corneal graft rejection remains a cause of blindness. OX40, a member of the TNF receptor superfamily, is expressed on activated T cells, and transmits a costimulatory signal by binding to OX40 ligand (OX40L) expressed on several cells with antigen-presenting functions. Using a blocking monoclonal antibody (mAb) against murine OX40L, we investigated the role of OX40 in a murine model of corneal transplantation.

Functional expression of B7H1 on retinal pigment epithelial cells.

The interaction of programmed death-1 (PD-1) expressed on T cells with its ligands B7H1 (PDL1) and B7DC (PDL2) is known to be a mechanism of T cell inhibition. In the present study, we examined whether human or murine retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells express B7H1 and B7DC, and if so, whether these molecules expressed on RPE cells play an inhibitory role via interaction with T cells. The transcriptional levels and surface expression of B7H1 and B7DC on human RPE cell line (ARPE-19), RPE cells freshly isolated from healthy human subjects, and murine RPE cells were studied by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and flow cytometry.

A case of hypertensive keratouveitis with endotheliitis associated with cytomegalovirus.

Aim: While cytomegalovirus is well known as a pathogenic organism of retinitis, especially associated with human immunodeficiency virus infection, there are few reports of anterior uveitis associated with cytomegalovirus.

Methods: The authors present a case of keratouveitis associated with cytomegalovirus.

Results: A 70-year-old Japanese man was referred to the authors because of poorly controlled hypertensive keratouveitis in the left eye.

Upregulation of neurotrophic factor-related gene expression in retina with experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis by intravitreal injection of tacrolimus (FK506).

Aim: The current study was designed to determine whether intravitreal injection of tacrolimus (FK506) modulates the gene expression of neurotrophic factor-related molecules in the retina from eyes with induced experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU) in rats.

Methods: Rats were immunised with interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein peptide (R14) and given intravitreal injection of tacrolimus on day 12 after immunisation. As control, immunised rats received intravitreal injection of vehicle.

Cataract surgery using the bimanual phacoemulsification technique with an Accurus system and Mackool microphaco tip.

Purpose: To investigate the safety and effectiveness of the Accurus vitreoretinal and phacoemulsification system (Alcon, Inc.) for bimanual phacoemulsification surgery.

Setting: Kosei Chuo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

Clinical evaluation of blue-light blocker foldable acrylic IOL (HMY).

Efficacy and safety of blue-light-filtering acrylic IOL (HMY) were assessed and proven from 3 months to 1 year of postoperative follow-up in a clinical study performed on 80 eyes of 45 patients. Postoperative corrected visual acuity of all the eyes was 6/12 or better and 78.8% of them achieved higher than 6/6.

Circulating neutrophils in Behçet disease is resistant for apoptotic cell death in the remission phase of uveitis.

Background: Behçet disease (BD) is manifested by recurrent acute iridocyclitis with hypopyon in the active phase, which regresses spontaneously. Hypopyon consists of inflammatory cells infiltrating the eye, with polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) as the main component. The present study was conducted to investigate the apoptosis property of PMNs in BD patients with uveitis.