Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells.

The recent discovery of melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells that mediate the pupil light reflex has provided new insights into how the pupil responds to different properties of light. These ganglion cells are unique in their ability to transduce light into electrical energy. There are parallels between the electrophysiologic behavior of these cells in primates and the clinical pupil response to chromatic stimuli. Under photopic conditions, a red light stimulus produces a pupil constriction mediated predominantly by cone input via trans-synaptic activation of melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells, whereas a blue light stimulus at high intensity produces a steady-state pupil constriction mediated primarily by direct intrinsic photoactivation of the melanopsin-expressing ganglion cells. Preliminary data in humans suggest that under photopic conditions, cones primarily drive the transient phase of the pupil light reflex, whereas intrinsic activation of the melanopsin-expressing ganglion cells contributes heavily to sustained pupil constriction. The use of chromatic light stimuli to elicit transient and sustained pupil light reflexes may become a clinical pupil test that allows differentiation between disorders affecting photoreceptors and those affecting retinal ganglion cells

Combined Ring Inversion and Side Group Rotation in Geminal Diphosphoryl Substituted Pyrrolinoxyl Radicals: ESR Analysis of Chemical Exchange between Four Nonequivalent Sites

The ESR spectra of three diphosphorylated pyrrolidinoxyl radicals have been studied over a large temperature range. While for the trans 2,5-disubstituted compound 1 no line width alternation was found, for the 2,2-disubstituted compounds 2 and 3, dramatic changes in the spectra were observed as a function of the temperature. These changes were explained by a four-site chemical exchange model including both ring inversion and hindered rotation around the carbon-phosphorus bonds. For radical 3, the presence of additional 5,5-dimethyl substitution can completely block rotations around carbon-phosphorus bonds for certain ring geometries, while for other ring conformations chemical exchange still occurs through combined inversionrotation processes. An effective two-site model composed of nonequivalent sites and a superposition model composed of a pair of exchanging conformers and a pair of nonexchanging conformers were used to simulate spectrum variations. A satisfactory fit was obtained over the entire temperature range investigated. From the temperature dependence of the exchange frequencies the potential barriers for ring inversion (27 kJ/mol), for combined inversion-rotation (11 kJ/mol), and for rotation around the carbon-phosphorus bonds (14 kJ/mol) were estimated