Isolated surgical lesions were made in three Macaca mulatta monkeys. Two had right optic tract section. One control underwent section of the right half of the chiasm. Preoperative evaluation revealed no fundus, pupil, or VER abnormalities. Postoperatively, a classic Marcus Gunn pupil was found contralateral to the isolated optic tract lesions. The control had normal pupils. The nature of the le...

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation has permitted the reconstruction of the ancient migrations of women. This has provided evidence that our species arose in Africa about 150000 years before present (YBP), migrated out of Africa into Asia about 60000 to 70000 YBP and into Europe about 40000 to 50000 YBP, and migrated from Asia and possibly Europe to the Americas about 20000 to 30000...

PURPOSE Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are suspected to play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), caused by mutated complex I subunit genes. It seems surprising that optic neuropathy has not been described in animals with a knockout of genes encoding critical anti-ROS defenses. If ROS have a role in the optic nerve injury of LHON, then increasing mitoch...

May and colleagues each reported a case of endogenous endophthalmitis in patients with gingival disease that progressed to an abscess. In the latter case, the patient also had undergone a cavity filling 7 days before onset of symptoms. Our case of endogenous endophthalmitis was in an immunocompetent individual who underwent routine dental cleaning 10 days before seeing an ophthalmologist. She d...

Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is an inherited form of bilateral optic atrophy in which the primary etiological event is a mutation in the mitochondrial genome. The optic neuropathy involves a loss of central vision due to degeneration of the retinal ganglion cells and optic nerve axons that subserve central vision. The primary mitochondrial mutation is necessary, but not sufficient, ...