PURPOSE To describe a case of fungal keratitis involving an atypical organism with confirmatory in vivo confocal microscopy and to review the literature on Rhodotorula keratitis. METHODS Case report and review of the medical literature. RESULTS A 22-year-old college student was struck in the left eye with a tree branch and subsequently developed pain, redness and photophobia. Upon presentat...

BACKGROUND Bilateral keratitis rarely occurs in individuals without predisposing factors. Here we describe the clinical course of a patient who developed a bilateral keratitis caused by Morganella. morganii which might be associated with long term using of topical corticosteroids-containing preparations on the face. CASE PRESENTATION A 52-year-old female patient presented with marked bilatera...

PURPOSE To report an unusual case of herpetic bullous keratitis misdiagnosed as a case of pseudophakic bullous keratopathy with secondary glaucoma. RESULTS A retrospective analysis of the case record of a 60-year-old man who had earlier undergone bilateral cataract surgery, was done. He presented with a complaint of decrease in vision in the right eye of 20 days duration. On examination, corn...

There is extensive evidence that the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling cascade mediates programmed cell death in neurons. However, current evidence that the mixed linage kinases (MLKs), upstream in this cascade, mediate cell death is based, in the in vivo context, entirely on pharmacological approaches. The compounds used in these studies have neither complete specificity nor se...

Phr1 is the single well-conserved murine ortholog of the invertebrate ubiquitin ligase genes highwire (in Drosophila) and rpm-1 (in Caenorhabditis elegans). The function and mechanism of action of highwire and rpm-1 are similar--both cell-autonomously regulate synaptogenesis by down-regulating the ortholog of the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase dual leucine zipper kinase (MAPKKK ...

The PHR (Pam/Highwire/RPM-1) proteins are evolutionarily conserved ubiquitin ligases that regulate axon guidance and synapse formation in C. elegans, Drosophila, zebrafish and mice. In C. elegans, RPM-1 (Regulator of Presynaptic Morphology-1) functions in synapse formation, axon guidance, axon termination, and postsynaptic GLR-1 trafficking. Acting as an E3 ubiquitin ligase, RPM-1 negatively re...

Leucine Zipper-bearing Kinase (LZK/MAP3K13) is a member of the mixed lineage kinase family with high sequence identity to Dual Leucine Zipper Kinase (DLK/MAP3K12). While DLK is established as a key regulator of axonal responses to injury, the role of LZK in mammalian neurons is poorly understood. By gain- and loss-of-function analyses in neuronal cultures, we identify LZK as a novel positive re...

Charged surfactant bilayers deposited in thick multilayer films and swollen in vapor or in solution have been studied by coherent x-ray reflectivity. We report a pronounced static speckle pattern which persists under conditions of full hydration, despite the fact that the bilayers are fluid, relatively soft, and consisting of soluble amphiphiles (DDABr). Characteristic of the macroscopic domain...

The capacity of an axon to regenerate is regulated by its external environment and by cell-intrinsic factors. Studies in a variety of organisms suggest that alterations in axonal microtubule (MT) dynamics have potent effects on axon regeneration. We review recent findings on the regulation of MT dynamics during axon regeneration, focusing on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In C. elegans th...