Bacteriology of the conjunctiva in pre-cataract surgery patients with occluded nasolacrimal ducts and the operation outcomes in Japanese patients.

Background: Contamination of the conjunctiva in association with nasolacrimal duct obstruction is by all accounts a risk factor for infectious endophthalmitis post-cataract surgery.

Methods: All patients who underwent cataract day surgery routinely received nasolacrimal duct syringing with normal saline at the Wakayama Medical University Hospital, Japan, from 2011 to 2013. The microorganisms isolated from conjunctival swab samples of patients with occluded nasolacrimal ducts and their susceptibility to antibiotics, as well as the operation outcomes in all the patients were retrospectively investigated.

Endogenous osteopontin involvement in laser-induced choroidal neovascularization in mice.

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of the lack of osteopontin (OPN) and the administration of anti-OPN antibody on inflammation and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in choroidal tissue and on the development of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) after retinal photocoagulation in mice.

Methods: CNV was induced in one eye each of 20 C57BL/6-background OPN-deficient mice or 20 wild-type littermates. In another series of experiments, CNV was induced in 40 C57BL/6 mice treated with intraperitoneal administration of 400 μg anti-OPN (SLAYGLR) neutralizing antibody or control IgG.

Impaired angiogenic response in the corneas of mice lacking osteopontin.

Purpose: To investigate the effects of loss of osteopontin (OPN) in the development of neovascularization in corneal stroma in mice. Cell culture study was also conducted to clarify the effects of OPN in transforming growth factor (TGF) beta1-driven cell signaling and expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).

Methods: Ocular fibroblasts from wild-type and OPN-null mice were used to study the role of OPN in TGFbeta1 signal and VEGF expression.

Endogenous TNFalpha suppression of neovascularization in corneal stroma in mice.

Purpose: To examine the role of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) in stromal neovascularization in injured cornea in vivo and in cytokine-enhanced vessel-like endothelial cell tube formation in vitro.

Methods: An in vitro model of angiogenesis was used to examine the roles of TNFalpha on tube formation by human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) cocultured with fibroblasts on induction by transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFbeta1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Central cauterization was used to induce stromal neovascularization in corneas of wild-type (WT) and TNFalpha-null (Tnfalpha(-/-)) mice.