Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic's first wave on the care and treatment situation of intravitreal injections in a German metropolitan region.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the impact of the first coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) wave in 2020 on patients scheduled for intravitreal injections (IVI) in a German metropolitan region.

Methods: We performed a multicentre prospective survey and retrospective analysis of the records of patients treated with intravitreal injections during the 20-week period from March to July 2020 in all four hospital eye departments in the city of Hamburg using a questionnaire (on treatment adherence, SarsCoV2-related personal, familial and social data) and treatment data.

Results: A total of 1038 patients (2472 IVI, 1231 eyes) and 818 questionnaires were evaluated.

Endothelial Cell Count in Eye Bank Corneal Grafts: Impact of Death Cause and Donor Diseases.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of death causes and documented donor diseases on initial endothelial cell counts (after retrieval) and the development of corneal graft endothelia during organ culture.

Methods: The retrospective statistic analyses was conducted on a data set of 10,185 human corneas prepared at the Hamburg Eye Bank.

Results: Although we observed that death by gunshot trauma or alcoholism seems to be associated with marginally higher endothelium cell counts (independently from donor age), we could prove that only donor age is a relevant predictive parameter for the initial cell-density of the endothelium and its development in vitro.

Microcarrier-based expansion of adult murine side population stem cells.

The lack of reliable methods to efficiently isolate and propagate stem cell populations is a significant obstacle to the advancement of cell-based therapies for human diseases. One isolation technique is based on efflux of the fluorophore Hoechst 33342. Using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), a sub-population containing adult stem cells has been identified in a multitude of tissues in every mammalian species examined.

Risk factors for donor cornea contamination: retrospective analysis of 4546 procured corneas in a single eye bank.

Purpose: Microbiological contamination is a common cause for elimination of organ-cultured donor corneas. The aims of the present study were to analyze contamination rates and identify risk factors for contamination.

Methods: Retrospectively, the contamination rates of 4546 organ-cultured corneas and the causative species were studied.

Thirty years of cornea cultivation: long-term experience in a single eye bank.

Purpose: To evaluate donor demographics, trends in donor tissue procurement and tissue storage over a long period.

Methods: A retrospective, longitudinal, descriptive analysis was undertaken of data from the Hamburg Eye Bank Data Base (HEB-DB) that had been collected between 1981 and 2010. Data on 54 parameters of cornea donors [including clinical history, age, death cause, gender and death-to-explantation interval (DEI)] and of cultivated corneas (endothelial quality and development in culture, cultivation period, microbiological contamination) were retrieved.

Relationship between minimum corneal thickness and refractive state, keratometry, age, sex, and left or right eye in refractive surgery candidates.

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between the thinnest point in corneal thickness and the refractive state, keratometry, age, sex, and the ocular side.

Setting: Eye clinics in Germany and Austria and the Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Traumatic wound dehiscence after penetrating keratoplasty: case series and literature review.

Purpose: Blunt trauma after penetrating keratoplasty (PK) is a high risk for wound rupture at the donor-recipient interface. We present 6 cases of traumatic wound dehiscence after PK; we describe the morphologic and functional outcome after surgical intervention and provide a review of the current literature.

Methods: Six patients with a traumatic wound dehiscence after PK were analyzed retrospectively from the files of the University Eye Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (1998-2009).

Bilateral crystalline corneal deposits as first clinical manifestation of monoclonal gammopathy: a case report.

Aims: To report the clinical and diagnostic findings of a patient with bilateral corneal deposits caused by an underlying monoclonal gammopathy.

Methods: Slit-lamp biomicroscopy, confocal microscopy and additional serological tests were performed on a 35-year-old man presenting with bilateral crystalline corneal deposits.

Results: The patient was diagnosed as having monoclonal gammopathy based on elevated levels of serum immunoglobulin G.

The anti-apoptotic protein lifeguard is expressed in breast cancer cells and tissues.

Lifeguard (LFG) is an anti-apoptotic protein that inhibits Fas-mediated death in tumour cells. However, the molecular function of human LFG in the carcinogenesis of human breast cells is uncertain. We studied the expression and function of endogenous LFG in four breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, T-47D and HS 578T), a human breast epithelial cell line (HS 578Bst), and in healthy and cancerous breast tissues.

Transactivation of lifeguard (LFG) by Akt-/LEF-1 pathway in MCF-7 and MDA-MB 231 human breast cancer cells.

Lifeguard (LFG) has been identified as a molecule that uniquely inhibits death mediated by Fas. The molecular function of human LFG and its regulation in carcinogenesis is uncertain. In our study, we investigated the potential regulation of LFG expression by Akt/LEF-1 pathway.

Sequence analysis shows that Lifeguard belongs to a new evolutionarily conserved cytoprotective family.

Cellular sensitivity to apoptotic stimuli is determined by several regulatory proteins. The biological and biomedical impact of these regulatory proteins is of fundamental importance for understanding and controlling apoptotic processes. We used a bioinformatic approach to characterise the antiapoptotic protein Lifeguard (LFG).

Cardiac conduction through engineered tissue.

In children, interruption of cardiac atrioventricular (AV) electrical conduction can result from congenital defects, surgical interventions, and maternal autoimmune diseases during pregnancy. Complete AV conduction block is typically treated by implanting an electronic pacemaker device, although long-term pacing therapy in pediatric patients has significant complications. As a first step toward developing a substitute treatment, we implanted engineered tissue constructs in rat hearts to create an alternative AV conduction pathway.