Publications by authors named "Ophir I"

This article investigates the experience of musicking (the performance of musical activity) among people coping with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Using qualitative research methods, we conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 10 male participants in a music project for people coping with PTSD induced by war and terrorism. The project consists of individual music lessons once a week and a musical enrichment group that meets once a month.

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Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of hearing loss and vestibular symptoms among Israeli vitiligo patients as compared with healthy controls.

Methods: 16 vitiligo patients and 16 healthy controls were enrolled in this prospective study. Vitiligo patients had undergone dermatologic evaluation and complete ENT evaluation.

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Background: Tubal pregnancy (TP) is twice as common following IVF when compared with natural conception. This is surprising, since embryo transfer is aimed for an accurate area in the uterine cavity. We thus hypothesized that either the embryo or the Fallopian tube actively participates in a pathological process leading to implantation outside the uterine cavity.

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The human colon adenocarcinoma cell line HT29 displays an undifferentiated phenotype under standard growth conditions. When these cells were cultured for 21 days and then treated with forskolin, most of the cells formed brush borders on their apical surfaces. Brush border formation was inhibited by cytochalasin D but not by colchicine.

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The non-polar human adenocarcinoma cells (HT29) when grown as monolayers or aggregates, have no tight junctions and no brush border. When these cells are treated with forskolin (15-100 microM) or cholera toxin (1 nM) intercellular lumina appear between the cells and about 30% of the cells facing the medium or the lumina are fully covered with a brush border. Aggregates embedded in collagen type I and treated with forskolin form a brush border only on cells facing the intercellular lumina.

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In the human colon adenocarcinoma cell line HT29, tight junctions can be induced by treatment with appropriate proteases or salt solutions. The temperature dependence of induced tight junction formation is characterized by a marked sigmoidal behavior. The different methods of induction used in this study were characterized by threshold temperatures ranging from 15 to 32 degrees C.

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The human colon adenocarcinoma cell line HT 29 grows in DMEM virtually without tight junctions (TJ). Fascia occludens type TJ can be induced in these cells by treatment with a variety of proteases or with hypertonic ammonium sulfate solution. The induced formation of TJ is not affected by pretreatment of the cells with cycloheximide or puromycin.

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The effect of sodium hyaluronate (NaHa) 1% and 0.1% was studied on 14-day chick embryo corneal epithelium by scanning electron microscopy. It was found that NaHa 1% or 0.

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In primary monolayer cultures of dispersed neural retina cells from 13-day chick embryo, gliocytes (Müller glia cells) multiply and rapidly change into a lentoidal (lens-like) phenotype. They express lens proteins, including MP26 (a lens plasma-membrane antigen) and ultra-structurally appear to resemble lens cells. A significant aspect of this modification is that the glia-derived lentoidal cells no longer display contact-affinity for neurons but become preferentially adhesive to each other; in aggregates, they assemble into compact lentoids.

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Retina tissue from 6-day chick embryos was organ-cultured for 3 days in the presence of antibodies to R-cognin, a surface antigen of retina cells. The antibodies which are known to bind to this antigen caused a striking malformation: interruption of the outer limiting membrane and extensive cell disorganization resulting in exteriorization of many cells and forming of chaotic masses on the surface of the tissue. Controls did not show these effects.

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The retina cognin (a retina-specific cell-surface glycosylated protein that mediates self-recognition and morphogenetic contact associations of embryonic retina cells) was visualized by immunolabeling and scanning electron microscopy on the surface of cells within retina tissue of 9- and 16-day chick embryos. The photoreceptor processes which are free of contact with cells in the neural retina, were found to be devoid of surface cognin from early on in their development. These results extend previous studies on cognin localization and regeneration on separated retina cells in vitro and conclusively correlate its presence and surface topology with its postulated role.

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1. Addition of ATP to isolated highly purified Torpedo synaptic vesicles results in 45Ca2+ uptake. 2.

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Activation of the Ca2+/Mg2+ ATPase associated with highly purified Torpedo synaptic vesicles results in 45Ca2+ uptake. The accumulated 45Ca2+ is released by hypoosmotic buffer and by the Ca2+ ionophore A23187. Density-gradient centrifugation and permeation chromatography reveal that vesicular acetylcholine and the membrane-bound 45Ca2+ co-migrate, thus implying that 45Ca2+ is transported into cholinergic vesicles.

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Highly purified synaptic vesicles have been isolated from the electric organ of Torpedo ocellata by a rapid procedure which enables the concurrent isolation of synaptic vesicles and of intact presynaptic nerve endings (synaptosomes). The purification procedure consists of homogenization of fresh electric tissue in iso-osmotic glycine in the presence of EGTA, differential and density gradient centrifugation, and gel permeation on a glass beads column of 2500 a pore size. The purity of the vesicles was evaluated both biochemically and morphologically.

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A procedure for the separation of proplastids free of mitochondria from dark-grown Euglena cells has been developed. A fraction enriched in proplastids was used for freeze-etching study of proplastid structure. The prolamellar body in freeze-etched replicas appeared sponge-like, with thylakoids, often vesicular, emerging from it.

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The plastids of dividing Euglena cells growing in the light in the presence of streptomycin decreased in length after a lag period of seven generations. The typical structure of the chloroplast was lost after a similar lag period. This loss of structure did not follow a regular pattern.

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