Indapamide-induced transient myopia with supraciliary effusion: case report.

BACKGROUND: Ingestion of sulphonamide-derived drugs has been reported to possibly have ocular side-effects. Authors aimed to present a rare case of indapamide-induced transient myopia with ciliary body edema and supraciliary effusion. CASE PRESENTATION: A 39 years old caucasian female patient presented at the Department of Neurology with headache and sudden bilateral loss of distant vision. Neurological assessment and cranial CT scans were unremarkable. For her hypertension, twice a day bisoprolol 2.5 mg and once a day indapamide 1.5 mg tablets were prescribed several days before. At her presenting, ophthalmic findings were as follows: visual acuity 0.08-7.25Dsph = 1.0 and 0.06-7.25Dsph = 1.0; IOP 25 mmHg and 24 mmHg, anterior chamber depth (ACD) 2.32 mm and 2.49 mm, lens thickness (L) 4.02 mm and 4.09 mm in the right and the left eye, respectively. By means of ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM), thickened (720 / 700 micron) and detached ciliary body, its forward movement (ciliary body-cornea angle 108[prime] / 114[prime]) and forward rotated ciliary processes were seen. Angle opening distance (AOD500) were 300 / 314 microns. By the following days, the myopia gradually diminished, and a week after her first symptoms, her uncorrected visual acuity was 1.0 in both eyes, IOP 13 mmHg and 17 mmHg, ACD 3.68 mm and 3.66 mm, L 3.78 mm and 3.81 mm in the right and the left eye, respectively. Ciliary body edema and detachment disappeared (ciliary body thickness 225 / 230 micron), both of the ciliary body-cornea angle 134[prime] / 140[prime] and the AOD500 (650 / 640 microns) increased. At this point, the patient admitted that she had stopped taking indapamide two days before. CONCLUSIONS: Our case report is the third one in the literature to present indapamide-induced transient myopia, and the first to employ UBM for describing the characteristics of this rare condition. According to the findings, authors suggest that both ciliary muscle contraction and ciliary body edema may play role in the pathomechanism. UBM seems to be a useful tool in the differential diagnosis of acute myopia. Further, authors wish to draw attention to one of the potential adverse effects of this drug which was not listed by its package insert

Cell Cycle- and Cancer-Associated Gene Networks Activated by Dsg2: Evidence of Cystatin A Deregulation and a Potential Role in Cell-Cell Adhesion

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (Mahoney, R01AR056067; Riobo, RO1 GM088256). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Proliferation and survival of human amniotic epithelial cells during their hepatic differentiation

Stem cells derived from placental tissues are an attractive source of cells for regenerative medicine. Amniotic epithelial cells isolated from human amnion (hAECs) have desirable and competitive characteristics that make them stand out between other stem cells. They have the ability to differentiate toward all three germ layers, they are not tumorigenic and they have immunosuppressive properties. Although liver transplantation is the best way to treat acute and chronic hepatic failure patients, there are several obstacles. Recently, stem cells have been spotlighted as alternative source of hepatocytes because of their potential for hepatogenic differentiation. In this work, we aimed to study the proliferation and survival of the hAECs during their hepatic differentiation. We have also analyzed the changes in pluripotency and hepatic markers. We differentiated amniotic cells applying a specific hepatic differentiation (HD) protocol. We determined by qRT-PCR that hAECs express significant levels of SOX-2, OCT-4 and NANOG during at least 15 days in culture and these pluripotent markers diminish during HD. SSEA-4 expression was reduced during HD, measured by immunofluorescence. Morphological characteristics became more similar to hepatic ones in differentiated cells and representative hepatic markers significantly augmented their expression, measured by qRT-PCR and Western blot. Cells achieved a differentiation efficiency of 75%. We observed that HD induced proliferation and promoted survival of hAECs, during 30 days in culture, evaluated by 3H-thymidine incorporation and MTT assay. HD also promoted changes in hAECs cell cycle. Cyclin D1 expression increased, while p21 and p53 levels were reduced. Immunofluorescence analysis showed that Ki-67 expression was upregulated during HD. Finally, ERK 1/2 phosphorylation, which is intimately linked to proliferation and cell survival, augmented during all HD process and the inhibition of this signaling pathway affected not only proliferation but also differentiation. Our results suggest that HD promotes proliferation and survival of hAECs, providing important evidence about the mechanisms governing their hepatic differentiation. We bring new knowledge concerning some of the optimal transplantation conditions for these hepatic like cells.Fil: Maymo, Julieta Lorena. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Riedel, Rodrigo Nicolas. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Pérez Alcázar, Germán Antonio. Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena;Fil: Magatti, Marta. Istituto Ospedaliero;Fil: Maskin, Bernardo. Hospital Nacional Professor Dr. Alejandro Posadas; ArgentinaFil: Dueñas, José Luis. Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena;Fil: Parolini, Ornella. Istituto Ospedaliero;Fil: Sánchez-Margalet, Víctor. Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena;Fil: Varone, Cecilia Laura. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentin

A framework for human microbiome research

A variety of microbial communities and their genes (the microbiome) exist throughout the human body, with fundamental roles in human health and disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Human Microbiome Project Consortium has established a population-scale framework to develop metagenomic protocols, resulting in a broad range of quality-controlled resources and data including standardized methods for creating, processing and interpreting distinct types of high-throughput metagenomic data available to the scientific community. Here we present resources from a population of 242 healthy adults sampled at 15 or 18 body sites up to three times, which have generated 5,177 microbial taxonomic profiles from 16S ribosomal RNA genes and over 3.5 terabases of metagenomic sequence so far. In parallel, approximately 800 reference strains isolated from the human body have been sequenced. Collectively, these data represent the largest resource describing the abundance and variety of the human microbiome, while providing a framework for current and future studies

Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group. The definitive version was published in Nature 486 (2012): 207-214, doi:10.1038/nature11234.Studies of the human microbiome have revealed that even healthy individuals differ remarkably in the microbes that occupy habitats such as the gut, skin and vagina. Much of this diversity remains unexplained, although diet, environment, host genetics and early microbial exposure have all been implicated. Accordingly, to characterize the ecology of human-associated microbial communities, the Human Microbiome Project has analysed the largest cohort and set of distinct, clinically relevant body habitats so far. We found the diversity and abundance of each habitat’s signature microbes to vary widely even among healthy subjects, with strong niche specialization both within and among individuals. The project encountered an estimated 81–99% of the genera, enzyme families and community configurations occupied by the healthy Western microbiome. Metagenomic carriage of metabolic pathways was stable among individuals despite variation in community structure, and ethnic/racial background proved to be one of the strongest associations of both pathways and microbes with clinical metadata. These results thus delineate the range of structural and functional configurations normal in the microbial communities of a healthy population, enabling future characterization of the epidemiology, ecology and translational applications of the human microbiome.This research was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants U54HG004969 to B.W.B.; U54HG003273 to R.A.G.; U54HG004973 to R.A.G., S.K.H. and J.F.P.; U54HG003067 to E.S.Lander; U54AI084844 to K.E.N.; N01AI30071 to R.L.Strausberg; U54HG004968 to G.M.W.; U01HG004866 to O.R.W.; U54HG003079 to R.K.W.; R01HG005969 to C.H.; R01HG004872 to R.K.; R01HG004885 to M.P.; R01HG005975 to P.D.S.; R01HG004908 to Y.Y.; R01HG004900 to M.K.Cho and P. Sankar; R01HG005171 to D.E.H.; R01HG004853 to A.L.M.; R01HG004856 to R.R.; R01HG004877 to R.R.S. and R.F.; R01HG005172 to P. Spicer.; R01HG004857 to M.P.; R01HG004906 to T.M.S.; R21HG005811 to E.A.V.; M.J.B. was supported by UH2AR057506; G.A.B. was supported by UH2AI083263 and UH3AI083263 (G.A.B., C. N. Cornelissen, L. K. Eaves and J. F. Strauss); S.M.H. was supported by UH3DK083993 (V. B. Young, E. B. Chang, F. Meyer, T. M. S., M. L. Sogin, J. M. Tiedje); K.P.R. was supported by UH2DK083990 (J. V.); J.A.S. and H.H.K. were supported by UH2AR057504 and UH3AR057504 (J.A.S.); DP2OD001500 to K.M.A.; N01HG62088 to the Coriell Institute for Medical Research; U01DE016937 to F.E.D.; S.K.H. was supported by RC1DE0202098 and R01DE021574 (S.K.H. and H. Li); J.I. was supported by R21CA139193 (J.I. and D. S. Michaud); K.P.L. was supported by P30DE020751 (D. J. Smith); Army Research Office grant W911NF-11-1-0473 to C.H.; National Science Foundation grants NSF DBI-1053486 to C.H. and NSF IIS-0812111 to M.P.; The Office of Science of the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 for P.S. C.; LANL Laboratory-Directed Research and Development grant 20100034DR and the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency grants B104153I and B084531I to P.S.C.; Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) grant to K.F. and J.Raes; R.K. is an HHMI Early Career Scientist; Gordon&BettyMoore Foundation funding and institutional funding fromthe J. David Gladstone Institutes to K.S.P.; A.M.S. was supported by fellowships provided by the Rackham Graduate School and the NIH Molecular Mechanisms in Microbial Pathogenesis Training Grant T32AI007528; a Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada Grant in Aid of Research to E.A.V.; 2010 IBM Faculty Award to K.C.W.; analysis of the HMPdata was performed using National Energy Research Scientific Computing resources, the BluBioU Computational Resource at Rice University

The Single-Phase ProtoDUNE Technical Design Report

ProtoDUNE-SP is the single-phase DUNE Far Detector prototype that is under construction and will be operated at the CERN Neutrino Platform (NP) starting in 2018. ProtoDUNE-SP, a crucial part of the DUNE effort towards the construction of the first DUNE 10-kt fiducial mass far detector module (17 kt total LAr mass), is a significant experiment in its own right. With a total liquid argon (LAr) mass of 0.77 kt, it represents the largest monolithic single-phase LArTPC detector to be built to date. It's technical design is given in this report

The Single-Phase ProtoDUNE Technical Design Report

ProtoDUNE-SP is the single-phase DUNE Far Detector prototype that is under construction and will be operated at the CERN Neutrino Platform (NP) starting in 2018. ProtoDUNE-SP, a crucial part of the DUNE effort towards the construction of the first DUNE 10-kt fiducial mass far detector module (17 kt total LAr mass), is a significant experiment in its own right. With a total liquid argon (LAr) mass of 0.77 kt, it represents the largest monolithic single-phase LArTPC detector to be built to date. It's technical design is given in this report