The cortical actin gel of eukaryotic cells is postulated to control cell surface activity. One type of protrusion that may offer clues to this regulation are the spherical aneurysms of the surface membrane known as blebs. Blebs occur normally in cells during spreading and alternate with other protrusions, such as ruffles, suggesting similar protrusive machinery is involved. We recently reported...

Small, non-rhegmatogenous retinal detachments (blebs) were made in cat eyes by injecting fluid into the subretinal space, and the time course of fluid resorption was monitored. Blebs made with Hanks' solution over the pigmented RPE resorbed 22% faster than those over the tapetum. Blebs made with a non-ionic solution (isotonic sucrose) took 43% longer to resorb than those made with Hanks' soluti...

When malignant cells, animal and human, were exposed in vitro to solutions of heavy metals or other selected compounds, three types of cell blebs were produced: (1) acentric blebs, arising from one side of the cell, e. g., by chlormerodrin, meralluride sodium, mercuric chloride; (2) symmetrical blebs; which completely enveloped the cell, e. g., by strong silver protein, auric chloride, p-chloro...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of legal blindness among the elderly population in the industrialized world, affecting about 14 million people in the United States alone. Smoking is a major environmental risk factor for AMD, and hydroquinone is a major component in cigarette smoke. Hydroquinone induces the formation of cell membrane blebs in human retinal pigment epi...

We examined the effects of hypoxia and reoxygenation in isolated, perfused rat livers. Hypoxia induced by a low rate of perfusion led to near anoxia confined to centrilobular regions of the liver lobule. Periportal regions remained normoxic. Within 15 min, anoxic centrilobular hepatocytes developed surface blebs that projected into sinusoids through endothelial fenestrations. Periportal hepatoc...

PURPOSE To determine the effect of a sustained-release dexamethasone implant (Ozurdex(®)) on wound healing after glaucoma filtration surgery in a rabbit model. METHODS Twelve new zealand white rabbits were divided into three groups: filtration surgery with intraoperative subconjunctival implantation of Ozurdex(®) (n=6), filtration surgery with intraoperative topical application of mitomycin-C...

Blebs and F-actin-driven pseudopods are alternative ways of extending the leading edge of migrating cells. We show that Dictyostelium cells switch from using predominantly pseudopods to blebs when migrating under agarose overlays of increasing stiffness. Blebs expand faster than pseudopods leaving behind F-actin scars, but are less persistent. Blebbing cells are strongly chemotactic to cyclic-A...

We studied the role of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in the resorption of different subretinal fluids from under small experimental retinal detachments (blebs) in the rabbit. Damaging the RPE with sodium iodate caused the resorption time, for blebs made with an ionic solution (Hanks'), to decrease from 2-6 hours to only about 30 minutes. Blebs made with sucrose also absorbed much more qu...

The etiology of the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus is not known, but aberrant apoptosis and/or insufficient clearance of apoptotic material have been assigned a pivotal role. During apoptosis, nucleosomes and several endogenous danger-associated molecular patterns are incorporated in blebs. Recent data indicate that apoptotic blebs induce maturation of myeloid dendritic cells, ...