BACKGROUND Hot air ballooning incidents are relatively rare; however, when they do occur they are likely to result in a fatality or serious injury. Human error is commonly attributed as the cause of hot air ballooning incidents; however, error in itself is not an explanation for safety failures. This research aims to identify and establish the relative importance of factors contributing toward ...

stachys lavandulifolia ( s. lavandulifolia ) is a plant that has been widely used as an herbal medicine in iran. unfortunately, despite the prevalent medicinal uses of the plant, there are no reports on the possible toxic effects of s. lavandulifolia . in the present study the potential toxicity of s. lavandulifolia after acute and sub-chronic administration in rats was evaluated. rats were ora...

Degeneration and necrosis of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is found in several conditions associated with reactive alteration of the cell layer, and is probably involved in the formation of drusen and age-related macular degeneration. In the current study we describe a novel system for culturing human RPE. This system permits evaluation of the effect of necrotic material between the epit...

OBJECTIVES To determine the reattachment rate of human retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) to different layers of human Bruch's membrane (BM). METHODS Explants of BM were prepared from 10 human cadaver eyes by removing native RPE. The RPE basal lamina, inner collagenous layer, elastin layer, and outer collagenous layer were exposed by sequentially removing each apical layer by mechanical or enzy...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common liver disease; the histological spectrum of which ranges from steatosis to steatohepatitis. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) often leads to cirrhosis and development of hepatocellular carcinoma. To better understand pathogenesis of NAFLD, we performed the pathway of distinction analysis (PoDA) on a genome-wide association study dataset of...

PURPOSE To determine whether drusen in patients with age-related maculopathy and macular degeneration (ARM/AMD) are associated with focal changes in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) lipofuscin fluorescence. METHOD A new autofluorescence imaging device was used to study lipofuscin distribution associated with individual drusen in 20 patients with ARM/AMD. Paired monochromatic and autofluoresce...