Transient but significant visual field defects after robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy in deep tRendelenburg position.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP) is a minimally invasive surgical procedure for prostate cancer. During RALP, the patient must be in a steep Trendelenburg (head-down) position, which leads to a significant increase in intraocular pressure (IOP). The association of RALP with visual field sensitivity, however, has not been prospectively studied. The purpose of this study was to evaluate prospectively the visual field, retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, and optic disc morphology in 50 normal eyes of 25 male patients that underwent RALP.The subjects were 25 males among 33 consecutive patients who underwent uneventful RALP under general anesthesia in our hospital. Visual field tests using the Humphrey visual field analyzer 30-2 SITA-standard program were performed before, 7 days after, and 1-3 months after RALP. IOP was measured before, during, and after RALP; and ophthalmologic examinations, including slit-lamp, fundus examination, and optical coherence tomography (OCT), were scheduled before and 7 days after surgery.IOP was significantly increased during RALP up to 29.4 mmHg (P<0.01). Postoperative local visual field defects were detected in 7 eyes of 7 subjects dominantly in the lower hemifield without abnormal findings in the optic nerve head or retina, and the visual field recovered to normal within 3 months after surgery. General factors associated with RALP, IOP, RNFL thickness, or optic disc parameters did not differ significantly between eyes with and without postoperative visual field defects, and parameters of OCT measurements were not altered after surgery.Transient but significant unilateral visual field defects were found in 28% of the subjects examined. The probable cause are the increased IOP and altered perfusion during surgery and ophthalmologic examinations are therefore suggested before and after RALP

Down-regulation of a morphogen (sonic hedgehog) gradient in the gastric epithelium of Helicobacter pylori-infected Mongolian gerbils

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) is a morphogen involved in many aspects of patterning of the gut during embryogenesis and in gastric fundic gland homeostasis in the adult. Intestinal metaplastic change of the gastric epithelium is associated with the loss of Shh expression, and mice that lack Shh expression show intestinal transformation of the gastric mucosa. The present study was designed to investigate the alteration of Shh expression in the stomach of an experimental model of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) colonization. Male Mongolian gerbils were inoculated with H. pylori and examined 4 and 51 weeks later. The level of Shh mRNA expression was determined by quantitative RT-PCR and in situ hybridization. Shh protein expression was determined by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry. Shh was expressed in the parietal cells, zymogenic cells, and mucous neck cells of the gastric fundic glands of gerbils. Prolonged colonization by H. pylori led to extension of the inflammation from the antrum to the corpus of the stomach, with loss of Shh expression. Loss of Shh expression correlated with loss of parietal cells, disturbed maturation of the mucous neck cell-zymogenic cell lineage, and increased cellular proliferation. Shh expression is significantly reduced in H. pylori-associated gastritis. These data show for the first time that H. pylori infection leads to down-regulation of the expression of a morphogen with an established role (Shh) in gastric epithelial differentiatio

Coordination of Cellular Dynamics Contributes to Tooth Epithelium Deformations.

The morphologies of ectodermal organs are shaped by appropriate combinations of several deformation modes, such as invagination and anisotropic tissue elongation. However, how multicellular dynamics are coordinated during deformation processes remains to be elucidated. Here, we developed a four-dimensional (4D) analysis system for tracking cell movement and division at a single-cell resolution in developing tooth epithelium. The expression patterns of a Fucci probe clarified the region- and stage-specific cell cycle patterns within the tooth germ, which were in good agreement with the pattern of the volume growth rate estimated from tissue-level deformation analysis. Cellular motility was higher in the regions with higher growth rates, while the mitotic orientation was significantly biased along the direction of tissue elongation in the epithelium. Further, these spatio-temporal patterns of cellular dynamics and tissue-level deformation were highly correlated with that of the activity of cofilin, which is an actin depolymerization factor, suggesting that the coordination of cellular dynamics via actin remodeling plays an important role in tooth epithelial morphogenesis. Our system enhances the understanding of how cellular behaviors are coordinated during ectodermal organogenesis, which cannot be observed from histological analyses

Intraocular pressure of at each time point.

<p>P1: Day before RALP (conscious).P2: 5 min after systemic anesthesia induction.P3: 10 min after maintaining head-down position.P4: 1 hour after maintaining head-down position.P5: 2.5 hours after maintaining head-down position.P6: 4 hours after maintaining head-down position.P7: 10 min after release of head-down position.P8: Day after RALP (conscious).All: 50 eyes of all 25 subjects.VF defect +: 7 eyes with postoperative visual field defects.Error bars represent standard deviations of IOP of all subjects’ eyes.**: P<0.01, compared with the value at P1, after Bonferroni’s correction.</p

Structural Modification on Copper(I)-pyridylpyrimidine Complexes for Modulation of Rotational Dynamics, Redox Properties, and Phototriggered Isomerization

The redox properties of copper pyridylpyrimidine complexes, which undergo linkage isomerism based on pyrimidine ring rotation, were compared under different coordination environments. A newly synthesized compound, [Cu­(Mepypm)­(L_Mes)]­BF₄ (<b>1</b>·BF₄, Mepypm = 4-methyl-2-(2′-pyridyl)­pyrimidine, L_Mes = 2,9-dimesityl-1,10-phenanthroline) was compared with previously reported complexes of [Cu­(MepmMepy)­(L_Mes)]­BF₄ (<b>2</b>·BF₄, MepmMepy = 4-methyl-2-(6′-methyl-2′-pyridyl)­pyrimidine), Cu­(Mepypm)­(DPEphos)]­BF₄ (<b>3</b>·BF₄, DPEphos = bis­[2-(diphenylphosphino)­phenyl]­ether), [Cu­(Mepypm)­(L_Anth)]­BF₄ (<b>4</b>·BF₄, L_Anth = 2,9-bis­(9-anthryl)-1,10-phenanthroline), and [Cu­(Mepypm)­(L_Macro)]­BF₄ (<b>5</b>·BF₄). Isomer ratios, isomerization dynamics, redox properties, and photoelectron conversion functions varied with the coordination structure. Methyl substituents on the 6-position of the pyridine moiety increased steric repulsion and contributed to quicker rotation, enhanced photoluminescence, and increased photodriven rotational isomerization

Time points of intraocular pressure measurements and condition of the subjects.

<p>RALP: Robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.</p><p>Time points of intraocular pressure measurements and condition of the subjects.</p

Structural Modification on Copper(I)-pyridylpyrimidine Complexes for Modulation of Rotational Dynamics, Redox Properties, and Phototriggered Isomerization

The redox properties of copper pyridylpyrimidine complexes, which undergo linkage isomerism based on pyrimidine ring rotation, were compared under different coordination environments. A newly synthesized compound, [Cu­(Mepypm)­(L_Mes)]­BF₄ (<b>1</b>·BF₄, Mepypm = 4-methyl-2-(2′-pyridyl)­pyrimidine, L_Mes = 2,9-dimesityl-1,10-phenanthroline) was compared with previously reported complexes of [Cu­(MepmMepy)­(L_Mes)]­BF₄ (<b>2</b>·BF₄, MepmMepy = 4-methyl-2-(6′-methyl-2′-pyridyl)­pyrimidine), Cu­(Mepypm)­(DPEphos)]­BF₄ (<b>3</b>·BF₄, DPEphos = bis­[2-(diphenylphosphino)­phenyl]­ether), [Cu­(Mepypm)­(L_Anth)]­BF₄ (<b>4</b>·BF₄, L_Anth = 2,9-bis­(9-anthryl)-1,10-phenanthroline), and [Cu­(Mepypm)­(L_Macro)]­BF₄ (<b>5</b>·BF₄). Isomer ratios, isomerization dynamics, redox properties, and photoelectron conversion functions varied with the coordination structure. Methyl substituents on the 6-position of the pyridine moiety increased steric repulsion and contributed to quicker rotation, enhanced photoluminescence, and increased photodriven rotational isomerization