Subretinal hyporeflective globule: A novel OCT finding in central serous chorioretinopathy.

PURPOSE: To describe the subretinal hyporeflective globule in cases of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). METHODS: A retrospective analysis of consecutive cases of CSC presenting to a tertiary eye care center in eastern India was conducted. Subretinal hyporeflective globules were identified as small globular lesions below the external limiting membrane/ellipsoid zone, but above the RPE layer. They had a hyperreflective border with a hyporeflective core and a clear posterior tail of hyper-transmission. RESULTS: The present study analyzed 137 eyes of 137 patients. Eighty (58.4%) eyes had acute disease at presentation, 48 (35%) eyes had chronic disease, and eight (5.8%) eyes had resolved CSC. Subretinal hyporeflective globules were seen in 27 (21.8%) eyes, of which choroidal caverns were seen in seven (5.1%) eyes. Twenty-five eyes with chronic CSC and only two eyes with acute CSC had subretinal hyporeflective globules. Three eyes with resolved CSC had subretinal hyporeflective globules. CONCLUSION: We describe subretinal hyporeflective globule as a novel optical coherence tomography (OCT) finding in cases of CSC and describe its clinical correlates.

Identification of genes associated to ß -N oxalyl- L-α, ß-diaminopropionic acid and their role in mitigating salt stress in a low-neurotoxin cultivar of Lathyrus sativus.

Grass pea has the potential to become a miracle crop if the stigma attached to it as a toxic plant is ignored. In light of the following, we conducted transcriptome analyses on the high and low ODAP-containing cultivars i.e., Nirmal and Bidhan respectively in both normal and salt stress conditions. In this study, genes that work upstream and downstream to ß-ODAP have been found. Among these genes, AAO3 and ACL5 were related to ABA and polyamine biosynthesis, showing the relevance of ABA and polyamines in boosting the ß-ODAP content in Nirmal. Elevated ß-ODAP levels in salt stress-treated Bidhan may have evolved tolerance by positively regulating the expression of genes involved in phenylpropanoid and jasmonic acid biosynthesis. Although the concentration of ß-ODAP in Bidhan increased under salt stress, it was lower than in stress-treated Nirmal. Despite this, the expression of stress-related genes that work downstream to ß-ODAP was found higher in stress-treated Bidhan. This could be because stress-treated Nirmal has lower GSH, proline, and higher H2O2, resulting in the development of severe oxidative stress. Overall, our research not only identified new genes linked with ß-ODAP, but also revealed the molecular mechanism by which a low ß-ODAP-containing cultivar developed tolerance against salinity stress.

Multicolor imaging: Current clinical applications.

Multicolor (MC) imaging is an innovative pseudocolor fundus imaging modality based on confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy. It effectively scans the retina at different depths to create a composite image. The green reflectance image depicts the middle retinal while blue reflectance image provides images of the retinal surface. The infrared reflectance image depicts retinal structures at the level of outer retina and choroid. We systematically analyze published case reports, case series, and original articles on MC imaging where it has helped in discovering additional clinical features of retinal diseases not readily apparent on conventional color fundus photography and played a role in monitoring the response to treatment.

S-allyl cysteine inhibits TNF-α-induced inflammation in HaCaT keratinocytes by inhibition of NF- κB-dependent gene expression via sustained ERK activation.

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-induced keratinocyte inflammation plays a key role in the pathogenesis of multiple inflammatory skin diseases. Here we investigated the anti-inflammatory effect of S-allyl cysteine (SAC) on TNF-α-induced HaCaT keratinocyte cells and the mechanism behind its anti-inflammatory potential. SAC was found to inhibit TNF-α-stimulated cytokine expression. Further, SAC was found to inhibit TNF-α-induced activation of p38, JNK and NF-κB pathways. Interestingly, SAC was found to differentially regulate ERK MAP kinase in cells. TNF-α-induced transient ERK activation and SAC treatment resulted in sustained ERK activation both in the presence and absence of TNF-α. Additionally, SAC failed to inhibit the TNF-α-induced expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-1ß when cells were treated with the MEK inhibitor PD98059, suggesting that the anti-inflammatory effect of SAC is via sustained activation of the ERK pathway. Since ERK activation has been reported to negatively regulate NF-κB-driven gene expression and we find that SAC activates ERK and negatively regulates NF-κB, we investigated whether there existed any crosstalk between the ERK and the NF-κB pathways. NF-κB-dependent reporter assay, visualization of the nuclear translocation of NF-κB-p65 subunit and determination of the cellular levels of I-κB, the inhibitor of NF-κB, revealed that SAC inhibited TNF-α-induced NF-κB activation, and PD98059 treatment reversed this effect. These results collectively suggest that SAC inhibits TNF-α-induced inflammation in HaCaT cells via a combined effect entailing the inhibition of the p38 and the JNK pathways and NF-κB pathway via the sustained activation of ERK.