Neuropeptides, Trophic Factors, and Other Substances Providing Morphofunctional and Metabolic Protection in Experimental Models of Diabetic Retinopathy

Vision is the most important sensory modality for many species, including humans. Damage to the retina results in vision loss or even blindness. One of the most serious complications of diabetes, a disease that has seen a worldwide increase in prevalence, is diabetic retinopathy. This condition stems from consequences of pathological metabolism and develops in 75% of patients with type 1 and 50% with type 2 diabetes. The development of novel protective drugs is essential. In this review we provide a description of the disease and conclude that type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes lead to the same retinopathy. We evaluate existing experimental models and recent developments in finding effective compounds against this disorder. In our opinion, the best models are the long-term streptozotocin-induced diabetes and Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty and spontaneously diabetic Torii rats, while the most promising substances are topically administered somatostatin and pigment epithelium-derived factor analogs, antivasculogenic substances, and systemic antioxidants. Future drug development should focus on these

Raman Spectroscopy of Some Basic Chloride Containing Minerals of Lead and Copper

Raman spectroscopy has been used to characterise several lead and mixed cationic-lead minerals including mendipite, perite, laurionite, diaboléite, boléite, pseudoboléite, chloroxiphite, and cumengéite. Raman spectroscopy enables their vibrational spectra to be compared. The low wavenumber region is characterised by the bands assigned to cation-chloride stretching and bending modes. Phosgenite is a mixed chloride-carbonate mineral and a comparison is made with the molecular structure of the aforementioned minerals. Each mineral shows different hydroxyl-stretching vibrational patterns, but some similarity exists in the Raman spectra of the hydroxyl deformation modes. Raman spectroscopy lends itself to the study of these types of minerals in complex mineral systems involving secondary mineral formation