The effect of uncorrected ametropia on ocular torsion induced by changes in fixation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Ocular torsion, the eye movements to rotating around the line of sight, has not been well investigated regarding the influence of refractive errors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of uncorrected ametropia on ocular torsion induced by fixation distances. METHODS: Seventy-two subjects were classified according to the type of their refractive error, and ocular torsion of the uncorrected eye was compared based on changes induced by different fixation distances. Ocular torsion was measured using a slit-lamp biomicroscope equipped with an ophthalmic camera and a half-silvered mirror. RESULTS: In all groups, excyclotorsion values increased as the fixation distance decreased, but the myopia and astigmatism groups had larger amounts of ocular torsion than the emmetropia group. In addition, as the amount of uncorrected myopia and astigmatism increased, the amount of ocular torsion increased. CONCLUSION: Since the amount of ocular torsion caused by a change to a shorter fixation distance was larger when the refractive error was uncorrected, we suggest that ametropia should be fully corrected in patients frequently exposed to ocular torsion due to changes in fixation distance.

Measurement of ocular counter-roll using iris images during binocular fixation and head tilt.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the ocular counter-roll (OCR) measured using iris images during binocular fixation and head tilt with OCR measured via fundus photography. METHODS: Fifty-three healthy college students participated in this study. The mean OCR was measured by collection of iris images and fundus images under seven head tilt conditions (0 degrees; 10, 20, and 30 degrees right; and 10, 20, and 30 degrees left). Three iris images (crossed pupil center, pupil center, and pupil periphery) were taken using a slit-lamp biomicroscope with an ophthalmic camera and a half-silvered mirror; fundus images were collected via fundus photography. The mean OCR values were compared between images taken with each method. RESULTS: No iris images or head tilt conditions revealed any significant differences in mean OCR comparison with fundus images. The mean difference in OCR was smallest, and the correlation was greatest, between the crossed pupil center and fundus images. CONCLUSION: A half-silvered mirror and iris images can replace fundus photography for the measurement of OCR.

Bacillus anthracis spores influence ATP synthase activity in murine macrophages.

Anthrax is an infectious disease caused by toxigenic strains of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus anthracis. To identify the mitochondrial proteins that are expressed differently in murine macrophages infected with spores of B. anthracis Sterne, proteomic and MALDI-TOF/MS analyses of uninfected and infected macrophages were conducted. As a result, 13 mitochondrial proteins with different expression patterns were discovered in the infected murine macrophages, and some were identified as ATP5b, NIAP-5, ras-related GTP binding protein B isoform CRAa, along with several unnamed proteins. Among these proteins, ATP5b is related to energy production and cytoskeletal rearrangement, whereas NIAP-5 causes apoptosis of host cells due to binding with caspase-9. Therefore, this paper focused on ATP5b, which was found to be downregulated following infection. The downregulated ATP5b also reduced ATP production in the murine macrophages infected with B. anthracis spores. Consequently, this study represents the first mitochondrial proteome analysis of infected macrophages.