Choroidal excavation in eye with normal tension glaucoma.

Purpose: To report the case of an eye with normal tension glaucoma and a choroidal excavation.

Methods: This is an observational case report.

Results: A 59-year-old woman with normal tension glaucoma had a choroidal excavation in the left eye.

Vitreous hemorrhage caused by ruptured retinal macroaneurysm.

Purpose: To report the clinical findings of 7 patients with a vitreous hemorrhage (VH) caused by a ruptured retinal macroaneurysm.

Methods: Interventional case series. The medical records of 7 patients with a VH caused by a ruptured macroaneurysm and treated by either medication or vitrectomy were reviewed.

AMPA receptor synaptic targeting regulated by stargazin interactions with the Golgi-resident PDZ protein nPIST.

Regulation of AMPA receptors (AMPARs) at synapses plays a critical role in alterations of synaptic strength in the brain. Stargazin, an AMPAR-interacting protein, is critical for clustering and regulation of synaptic AMPARs. Stargazin interacts with AMPARs via its extracellular domain and with PDZ [postsynaptic density-95 (PSD-95)/Discs large (Dlg)/zona occludens-1 (ZO-1)] proteins via its C-terminal PDZ-binding motif, and these interactions are necessary for stargazin and AMPAR synaptic targeting.

Functional studies and distribution define a family of transmembrane AMPA receptor regulatory proteins.

Functional expression of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors in cerebellar granule cells requires stargazin, a member of a large family of four-pass transmembrane proteins. Here, we define a family of transmembrane AMPA receptor regulatory proteins (TARPs), which comprise stargazin, gamma-3, gamma-4, and gamma-8, but not related proteins, that mediate surface expression of AMPA receptors. TARPs exhibit discrete and complementary patterns of expression in both neurons and glia in the developing and mature central nervous system.

Retinal glial cells stimulate microvascular pericyte proliferation via fibroblast growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor in vitro.

Purpose: To investigate whether retinal glial cells (RGCs), which are believed to play an important role in the development and maintenance of microvessels, stimulate the proliferation of retinal bovine microvascular pericytes, an essential component of the vessels.

Methods: Conditioned medium (CM) was collected from a primary culture of RGC obtained from chick embryonic retina. The cell number was assayed after stimulation by RGC-CM.

Postsynaptic targeting of alternative postsynaptic density-95 isoforms by distinct mechanisms.

Members of the postsynaptic density-95 (PSD95)/synapse-associated protein-90 (SAP90) family of scaffolding proteins contain a common set of modular protein interaction motifs including PDZ (postsynaptic density-95/Discs large/zona occludens-1), Src homology 3, and guanylate kinase domains, which regulate signaling and plasticity at excitatory synapses. We report that N-terminal alternative splicing of PSD95 generates an isoform, PSD95beta that contains an additional "L27" motif, which is also present in SAP97. Using yeast two hybrid and coimmunoprecipitation assays, we demonstrate that this N-terminal L27 domain of PSD-95beta, binds to an L27 domain in the membrane-associated guanylate kinase calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine kinase, and to Hrs, an endosomal ATPase that regulates vesicular trafficking.