The agrin/perlecan-related protein eyes shut is essential for epithelial lumen formation in the Drosophila retina.

The formation of epithelial lumina is a fundamental process in animal development. Each ommatidium of the Drosophila retina forms an epithelial lumen, the interrhabdomeral space, which has a critical function in vision as it optically isolates individual photoreceptor cells. Ommatidia containing an interrhabdomeral space have evolved from ancestral insect eyes that lack this lumen, as seen, for example, in bees.

[Congenital heart defects in children born 1981-1987 in the Bratislava District and surrounding countryside].

In 1981-1987 of 61,420 liveborn children in the districts Bratislava-town and Bratislava-country 480 infants with inborn heart disease were born of whom 135 died. The mean incidence of congenital heart disease is 7.81% and the mean mortality 2.