Shedding light on myopia by studying complete congenital stationary night blindness.

Myopia is the most common eye disorder, caused by heterogeneous genetic and environmental factors. Rare progressive and stationary inherited retinal disorders are often associated with high myopia. Genes implicated in myopia encode proteins involved in a variety of biological processes including eye morphogenesis, extracellular matrix organization, visual perception, circadian rhythms, and retinal signaling. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) identified in animal models mimicking myopia are helpful in suggesting candidate genes implicated in human myopia. Complete congenital stationary night blindness (cCSNB) in humans and animal models represents an ON-bipolar cell signal transmission defect and is also associated with high myopia. Thus, it represents also an interesting model to identify myopia-related genes, as well as disease mechanisms. While the origin of night blindness is molecularly well established, further research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms of myopia development in subjects with cCSNB. Using whole transcriptome analysis on three different mouse models of cCSNB (in Gpr179-/-, Lrit3-/- and Grm6-/-), we identified novel actors of the retinal signaling cascade, which are also novel candidate genes for myopia. Meta-analysis of our transcriptomic data with published transcriptomic databases and genome-wide association studies from myopia cases led us to propose new biological/cellular processes/mechanisms potentially at the origin of myopia in cCSNB subjects. The results provide a foundation to guide the development of pharmacological myopia therapies.

Thyroid Sporadic Goiter with Adult Heterotopic Bone Formation.

Thyroid heterotopic bone formation (HBF) in goiter is a rare finding. Five thyroid resection specimens were analyzed for HBF. The results were correlated with clinicomorphological features. All patients were women (33-82 years). The preoperative diagnosis was thyroid goiter or nodule. Treatment consisted in thyroidectomy and lobectomy (3 and 2, resp.). Microscopy showed sporadic nodular goiter. Malformative blood vessels and vascular calcifications were seen in intra- and extrathyroid location (5 and 3, resp.). The number and size of HBFs (total: 28) ranged between 1 and 23/thyroid gland (one bilateral) and 1 and 10 mm, respectively. Twelve HBFs were in contact with the thyroid capsule. Most were extranodular (21, versus 6 intranodular). The medical history was positive for dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, renal dysfunction, and hyperuricemia (2, 3, and 3 cases and 1 case, resp.) without any parathyroid abnormality. In conclusion, thyroid HBF may be characterized by subcapsular or extranodular location, various size (usually ≥2 mm), and vascular calcifications and malformations. Features of metabolic syndrome and renal dysfunction may be present, but their exact role in the pathogenesis of HBFs remains to be elucidated.