Disruption in murine Eml1 perturbs retinal lamination during early development.

During mammalian development, establishing functional neural networks in stratified tissues of the mammalian central nervous system depends upon the proper migration and positioning of neurons, a process known as lamination. In particular, the pseudostratified neuroepithelia of the retina and cerebrocortical ventricular zones provide a platform for progenitor cell proliferation and migration. Lamination defects in these tissues lead to mispositioned neurons, disrupted neuronal connections, and abnormal function. The molecular mechanisms necessary for proper lamination in these tissues are incompletely understood. Here, we identified a nonsense mutation in the Eml1 gene in a novel murine model, tvrm360, displaying subcortical heterotopia, hydrocephalus and disorganization of retinal architecture. In the retina, Eml1 disruption caused abnormal positioning of photoreceptor cell nuclei early in development. Upon maturation, these ectopic photoreceptors possessed cilia and formed synapses but failed to produce robust outer segments, implying a late defect in photoreceptor differentiation secondary to mislocalization. In addition, abnormal positioning of Müller cell bodies and bipolar cells was evident throughout the inner neuroblastic layer. Basal displacement of mitotic nuclei in the retinal neuroepithelium was observed in tvrm360 mice at postnatal day 0. The abnormal positioning of retinal progenitor cells at birth and ectopic presence of photoreceptors and secondary neurons upon maturation suggest that EML1 functions early in eye development and is crucial for proper retinal lamination during cellular proliferation and development.

Creating virtual 3-dimensional models for teaching pre-clinical tooth preparation: Students' usages and perceptions.

PURPOSE: This research aimed to evaluate the students' usage and perceptions of using smartphones in their general dental education and learning tooth preparation with the individually designed virtual 3D instructional models in the pre-clinical removable partial denture course. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Second-year dental students were asked to voluntarily participate in a survey to investigate their demographic information, general usages of smartphones, perception of smartphones usage in dental education (construct 1) and perception of individually designed virtual 3D instructional models (construct 2). Students' responses of general usages of the smartphones were compared with their demographic and educational backgrounds using nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test (for age) and Fisher's exact test (for sex, race and educational background). The sums of scores of the construct 1 and construct 2 were tested for associations with student's demographic and educational backgrounds using the Pearson product-moment correlation (for age), t test (for sex and educational background) or one-way ANOVA F test (for race) (α = .05). RESULTS: A 75% response rate (N = 90) was achieved in this study, and all 90 participants owned smartphones. Students' responses to general usages of the smartphones were not significantly influenced by their demographic background. For the construct 1, more than 73% of participants responded either agree or strongly agree to the usage of smartphones in general dental education and pre-clinical setting; however, only 49% of participants responded the same way in the clinical setting. For the construct 2, 48 of 90 participants viewed the 3D models, and more than 73% of these 48 participants responded either agree or strongly agree to the usage of the 3D models in the pre-clinical course. Student's demographic background did not have significant influence on the sums of scores of the construct 1 and construct 2. CONCLUSIONS: Within the limitations of this study, high usages and ownerships of smartphones were found amongst the students surveyed. The individually designed virtual 3D instructional models as supplemental teaching materials in the pre-clinical course were perceived positively by the students.

A DN-mda5 transgenic zebrafish model demonstrates that Mda5 plays an important role in snakehead rhabdovirus resistance.

Melanoma Differentiation-Associated protein 5 (MDA5) is a member of the retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I)-like receptor (RLR) family, which is a cytosolic pattern recognition receptor that detects viral nucleic acids. Here we show an Mda5-dependent response to rhabdovirus infection in vivo using a dominant-negative mda5 transgenic zebrafish. Dominant-negative mda5 zebrafish embryos displayed an impaired antiviral immune response compared to wild-type counterparts that can be rescued by recombinant full-length Mda5. To our knowledge, we have generated the first dominant-negative mda5 transgenic zebrafish and demonstrated a critical role for Mda5 in the antiviral response to rhabdovirus.

Plasmapheresis using the IBM 2991 blood cell processor.

The IBM 2991 Blood Cell Processor, normally used to wash or deglycerolize red blood cells, has been modified to permit serial plasmapheresis using a small roller pump, an adapter line and the disposable processing set usually used for cell washing. Blood is withdrawn from the donor, pumped into the plastic centrifuge bag and the plasma removed after centrifugation. Donor erythrocytes are pumped from the processing bag to a reservoir bag from which they are returned to the donor by gravity. Multi-unit plasmapheresis to harvest plasma for transfusion or to remove plasma as a therapeutic measure is possible using the modified system. A four-unit plasmapheresis can be done in 65 to 75 minutes at a cost of $27.61, including disposables and technologist labor. This modification allows the IBM 2991 to function for red blood cell washing and as an efficient instrument for plasmapheresis.