Epigenetics pertains to heritable alterations in gene expression that do not involve modification of the underlying genomic DNA sequence. Historically, the study of epigenetic mechanisms has focused on DNA methylation and histone modifications, but the concept of epigenetics has been more recently extended to include microRNAs as well. Epigenetic patterning is modified by environmental exposure...

The relationship between thymidine kinase (TK) activity and virulence was studied in the mouse using three HSV-1 strains: (1) NIH TK+ (100% activity), (2) NIH TK+/- (25% TK activity), and (3) NIH TK- (0% TK activity). Following corneal inoculation, keratitis, virus titers (eye, trigeminal ganglia brain), survival, and latency were determined for each strain. The most virulent strain, NIH TK+ (3...

forty patients with cataracts, as well as 40 patients with proven ocular toxoplasmosis were enrolled in this prospective clinical study. serum igg and aqueous igg in both groups were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) and the corresponding ratios were calculated. serum igg/aqueous humor igg ratio was less than 100 in the patient group and more than 100 in the control group. o...

purpose: there are a few researches regarding the effects of islamic fasting on visual system. the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of ramadan fasting on the amplitude of accommodation (aa), near point of convergence (npc), positive and negative fusional vergences (pfv and nfv, respectively) in visually healthy fasters. methods: aa, npc, pfv and nfv at far (6m) and near (40cm) w...

cutaneous leishmaniasis (cl) is the most common parasitic disease transmitted by vectors in iran. cl is endemic in many urban and rural parts of iran and usually caused by two species of leishmania as l . major and l . tropica transmitted to humans from parasite reservoirs by the bite of female sandflies. we report a case of ocular leishmaniasis with eyelid involvement presentation. the patient...

purpose: to compare the efficacy of intravitreal clindamycin and dexamethasone with classic treatment for ocular toxoplasmosis. methods: in this prospective, randomized single-masked clinical trial a total of 68 patients with active ocular toxoplasmosis were assigned randomly to 2 treatment groups: 34 in the intravitreal clindamycin plus dexamethasone (ivcd) group and 34 in the classic treatmen...

purpose: to compare the effects of short-tem and long-term systemic corticosteroids in the treatment of confirmed ocular toxoplasmosis. methods: this randomized comparative clinical trial was performed on 69 patients with confirmed active ocular toxoplasmosis with typical clinical manifestations. the subjects were randomly assigned to receive either 10 days (group a, 33 cases) or 4-6 weeks (gro...

Autophagy plays an adaptive role in cell survival, development, differentiation and intracellular homeostasis. Autophagy is recognized as a 'self-cannibalizing' process that is active during stresses such as starvation, chemotherapy, infection, ageing, and oxygen shortage to protect organisms from various irritants and to regenerate materials and energy. However, autophagy can also lead to a fo...

The role of neurotrophic factors as endogenous survival proteins for brain neurons remains contentious. In the cerebellum, the signals controlling survival of molecular layer interneurons (MLIs) are unknown, and direct evidence for the requirement of a full complement of MLIs for normal cerebellar function and motor learning has been lacking. Here, we show that Purkinje cells (PCs), the target ...

Background: Thyroid-associated eye disease (TED), previously known as Graves’ ophthalmopathy is a cosmetically and functionally debilitating disease that is seen worldwide. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and clinical severity of ocular manifestations of Graves’ disease according to sex, age and duration in northern Iran. Methods: Between April 2011 and March 2...