epithelium

Macular Degeneration treatment with Laser

.... This heating and damaging of the retinal pigment epithelium causes the body to come in and do some repair work and, at the same time, some of these drusen can disappear and decrease in size, number and thickness. The laser treatment is however for the dry form of the disease and Dr. Fox, an ophthalmologist s...

Blindness can be stopped with drug for acne treatment

... Rods and cones are supported by retinal-pigmented epithelium (RPE), a layer of cells near the retina. The accumulation of toxic pigments, or lipofuscin// results in the deterioration of the RPE leading to loss of rods and cones and subsequent central vision loss. Researchers from the University of California,...

Researchers Gather Stem Cells From Discarded Placenta

... possible to preserve the stem cells from amniotic epithelium for future emergencies of the newborn child. However the researchers also point out the fact that despite the similarities between the amniotic epithelial cells and the embryonic stem cells, these are not stem cells totally, as they will not be able ...

Genetic Cause For Farsightedness Discovered

...n is located on the surface of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which is located beneath the retina and helps maintain photoreceptors, the eye's light-detecting cells. Blindness occurs when these cells die after detachment of the retina from the RPE. Researchers hope the information gained from his study ...

Smoking Marijuana Increases The Risk Of Bladder Cancer

...auses the malignant transformation in transitional epithelium cells which forms the outer lining of the bladder. The marijuana metabolites have a longer half-life in urine than the nicotine metabolites. Hence they stay for a longer duration in the bladder and have been found to have both anti-tumor and tumor-...

Mystery behind the Formation of Vertebral Precursors Unraveled

...factors are known to control the transition of the epithelium to a mesenchyme state in cancer. //They are thought to play a role in controlling tumor invasion. Jacqueline Kim Dale, Ph.D., formerly a Senior Research Associate at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, and Olivier Pourquié, Ph.D., Stowers I...

PAI-2 Plays a Pivotal Role in Eye Infections

... a different expression of the protein between the epithelium of the cornea and conjunctiva cells,’ says Massaro-Giordano, an assistant professor of ophthalmology, cataract and refractive surgery at Scheie. ‘This may help us understand the molecular mechanisms that dictate the different expression profiles of P...

Cell transplantation - Potential treatment for blindness

...ning and Stem Cells.In this study, Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) was cultured from human embryonic stem cell lines. RPE are the cells that support the light sensing cells in the eye. The cultured RPE was then transplanted into the eyes of a special breed of rat that had an RPE defect, resulting in blindness....

Proteins in lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis

...roject localized the PLUNC (palate, lung and nasal epithelium clone) gene to chromosome 20. A genetic locus in this region directs the production of a family of at least 10 proteins. Some of the proteins are short, referred to as "SPLUNCs," while others are long, referred to as "LPLUNCs." Researchers have fou...

How Taste-buds Develop?

...early tongue development, neurons enter the tongue epithelium and make synapses with taste bud cells. This study confirmed that taste buds produce signals that attract nerve fibers to them. When taste-bud development was prevented by blocking Wnt signaling, the nerve fibers did not enter the tongue epithelium. ...

Black and White in ‘Shades of Grey

...nt that imparts color to the skin, hair, pigmented epithelium of the retina, zona recticularis of the adrenal gland, stria vascularis of the inner ear and some areas of the brain. Melanin molecules are composed of aggregates of smaller molecules of polyacetylene, polypyrrole, polyaniline and their copolymers. T...

Biologists Trace Cause Of Early Blindness To Tissue Defect

...as a neighboring tissue called the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). In collaboration with the University of Western Kentucky’s Joseph Bilotta, they observed that mutations in REP1 disrupt cellular processes in the RPE, causing photoreceptor death as a secondary consequence. Their results suggest therapies that...

Genetic Pathways to Curable and Incurable Forms of Pancreatic Cancer Identified

...stinct class of precancerous lesions in the ductal epithelium called mucinous cystic neoplasms (MCN). This initiates a process that results in the rarer but far less deadly cystic pancreatic cancer. MCN lesions often are large enough to be detected early by MRI or CT scan and also to cause symptoms. The cell...

Novel Method of Adult Stem Cell Growth may Help to Treat Cornea Disorders

... per cent of the animals had recovered the corneal epithelium after the adult stem cells transplant. The corneal epithelium is the layer that is damaged with limbic insufficiency, a problem that results in opacity of the cor...