Health disparities based on neighbourhood and social conditions: Open Comparisons-an indicator-based comparative study in Sweden.

Objective: The overarching goal of the Swedish public health policy is to create the right societal conditions for good and equitable health throughout the population and to reduce avoidable health inequalities within a generation. The objective of this article is to highlight the main findings of the Open Comparisons in Public Health (OCPH) 2019 study.

Study Design: The OCPH is a longitudinal indicator-based comparative study, encompassing 39 public health indicators with results from Sweden's 21 regions and 290 municipalities.

Transactivation of EGF receptors in chicken Müller cells by α2A-adrenergic receptors stimulated by brimonidine.

Purpose: Alpha2-adrenergic receptor agonists are used in glaucoma treatment and have been shown to have some neuroprotective effects. We performed this study to test the hypothesis that epidermal growth factor receptors on chicken Müller cells are transactivated by α2-adrenergic receptors and we focused on the extracellular signal-activated kinases 1/2 (ERK) pathway.

Methods: Embryonic chicken retina and cultures of primary Müller cells were stimulated by α2-adrenergic receptor agonist brimonidine.

Multiple receptor tyrosine kinases are expressed in adult rat retinal ganglion cells as revealed by single-cell degenerate primer polymerase chain reaction.

Background: To achieve a better understanding of the repertoire of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) in adult retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) we performed polymerase chain reaction (PCR), using degenerate primers directed towards conserved sequences in the tyrosine kinase domain, on cDNA from isolated single RGCs univocally identified by retrograde tracing from the superior colliculi.

Results: All the PCR-amplified fragments of the expected sizes were sequenced, and 25% of them contained a tyrosine kinase domain. These were: Axl, Csf-1R, Eph A4, Pdgfrbeta, Ptk7, Ret, Ros, Sky, TrkB, TrkC, Vegfr-2, and Vegfr-3.

Retinal glial (Müller ) cells: sensing and responding to tissue stretch.

Purpose: To test whether Müller glial cells sense, and respond to, mechanical tension in the retina.

Methods: A device was designed to stretch the retina at right angles to its surface, across retinal layers. Pieces of retina were mounted between two hollow tubes, and uniaxial force was applied to the tissue using a micrometer-stepping motor.

Inheritance of acquired behaviour adaptations and brain gene expression in chickens.

Background: Environmental challenges may affect both the exposed individuals and their offspring. We investigated possible adaptive aspects of such cross-generation transmissions, and hypothesized that chronic unpredictable food access would cause chickens to show a more conservative feeding strategy and to be more dominant, and that these adaptations would be transmitted to the offspring.

Methodology/principal Findings: Parents were raised in an unpredictable (UL) or in predictable diurnal light rhythm (PL, 12:12 h light:dark).