1,288 research outputs found
Locally induced neural stem cells/pluripotent stem cells for in vivo cell replacement therapy
ABSTRACT: Neural stem cells hold the key to innovative new treatments for age-associated degeneration and traumatic injury to the brain and spinal cord. We hypothesized that the in vivo induced pluripotent stem cells or neural stem cells through 'forced gene expression' can be used to repair damaged brain areas or treat degenerative diseases. Hopefully, these in vivo patient-specific stem cells can bring a new avenue for cell replacement therapies.published_or_final_versio
The current research status of normal tension glaucoma
Normal tension glaucoma (NTG) is a progressive optic neuropathy that mimics primary open-angle glaucoma, but lacks the findings of elevated intraocular pressure or other mitigating factors that can lead to optic neuropathy. The present review summarized the causes, genetics, and mechanisms underlying NTG in both animal models and human patients. We also proposed that the neurovascular unit is a therapeutic target for NTG management.published_or_final_versio
Response: New neurons from old beliefs in the adult piriform cortex? A Commentary on: 'Occurrence of new neurons in the piriform cortex'
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Uptake of Retrograde Tracers by Intact Optic Nerve Axons: A New Way to Label Retinal Ganglion Cells
Retrograde labelling of retinal ganglion cells with optic nerve transection often leads to degeneration of ganglion cells in prolonged experiments. Here we report that an intact optic nerve could uptake retrograde tracers applied onto the surface of the nerve, leading to high efficiency labelling of ganglion cells in the retina with long-term survival of cells. This method labelled a similar number of ganglion cells (2289 +/- 174 at 2 days) as the retrograde labeling technique from the superior colliculus (2250 +/- 94) or optic nerve stump (2279 +/- 114) after transection. This finding provides an alternative way to label retinal ganglion cells without damaging the optic tract. This will facilitate anatomical studies in identifying the morphology and connectivity of retinal ganglion cells, allowing secondary or triple labelling manipulations for long-term investigations.published_or_final_versio
Choosing preclinical study models of diabetic retinopathy: key problems for consideration
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most common complication of diabetes mellitus in the eye. Although the clinical treatment for DR has already developed to a relative high level, there are still many urgent problems that need to be investigated in clinical and basic science. Currently, many in vivo animal models and in vitro culture systems have been applied to solve these problems. Many approaches have also been used to establish different DR models. However, till now, there has not been a single study model that can clearly and exactly mimic the developmental process of the human DR. Choosing the suitable model is important, not only for achieving our research goals smoothly, but also, to better match with different experimental proposals in the study. In this review, key problems for consideration in choosing study models of DR are discussed. These problems relate to clinical relevance, different approaches for establishing models, and choice of different species of animals as well as of the specific in vitro culture systems. Attending to these considerations will deepen the understanding on current study models and optimize the experimental design for the final goal of preventing DR.published_or_final_versio
Specialized Vasculature in the Rostral Migratory Stream as a Neurogenic Niche and Scaffold for Neuroblast Migration
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Image processing methods to elucidate spatial characteristics of retinal microglia after optic nerve transection
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Treatment of Linear and Nonlinear Dielectric Property of Molecular Monolayer and Submonolayer with Microscopic Dipole Lattice Model: I. Second Harmonic Generation and Sum-Frequency Generation
In the currently accepted models of the nonlinear optics, the nonlinear
radiation was treated as the result of an infinitesimally thin polarization
sheet layer, and a three layer model was generally employed. The direct
consequence of this approach is that an apriori dielectric constant, which
still does not have a clear definition, has to be assigned to this polarization
layer. Because the Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) and the Sum-Frequency
Generation vibrational Spectroscopy (SFG-VS) have been proven as the sensitive
probes for interfaces with the submonolayer coverage, the treatment based on
the more realistic discrete induced dipole model needs to be developed. Here we
show that following the molecular optics theory approach the SHG, as well as
the SFG-VS, radiation from the monolayer or submonolayer at an interface can be
rigorously treated as the radiation from an induced dipole lattice at the
interface. In this approach, the introduction of the polarization sheet is no
longer necessary. Therefore, the ambiguity of the unaccounted dielectric
constant of the polarization layer is no longer an issue. Moreover, the
anisotropic two dimensional microscopic local field factors can be explicitly
expressed with the linear polarizability tensors of the interfacial molecules.
Based on the planewise dipole sum rule in the molecular monolayer, crucial
experimental tests of this microscopic treatment with SHG and SFG-VS are
discussed. Many puzzles in the literature of surface SHG and SFG spectroscopy
studies can also be understood or resolved in this framework. This new
treatment may provide a solid basis for the quantitative analysis in the
surface SHG and SFG studies.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figure
Local proliferation is the main source of rod microglia after optic nerve transection
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Combining Contrast Invariant L1 Data Fidelities with Nonlinear Spectral Image Decomposition
This paper focuses on multi-scale approaches for variational methods and
corresponding gradient flows. Recently, for convex regularization functionals
such as total variation, new theory and algorithms for nonlinear eigenvalue
problems via nonlinear spectral decompositions have been developed. Those
methods open new directions for advanced image filtering. However, for an
effective use in image segmentation and shape decomposition, a clear
interpretation of the spectral response regarding size and intensity scales is
needed but lacking in current approaches. In this context, data
fidelities are particularly helpful due to their interesting multi-scale
properties such as contrast invariance. Hence, the novelty of this work is the
combination of -based multi-scale methods with nonlinear spectral
decompositions. We compare with scale-space methods in view of
spectral image representation and decomposition. We show that the contrast
invariant multi-scale behavior of promotes sparsity in the spectral
response providing more informative decompositions. We provide a numerical
method and analyze synthetic and biomedical images at which decomposition leads
to improved segmentation.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, conference SSVM 201
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