Optic nerve hypoplasia is commonly observed in children affected by the fetal alcohol syndrome, and is believed to contribute to their poor visual acuity. We have used a 'binge' model of alcohol abuse in an attempt to recreate this hypoplasia in a mouse model. Pregnant female (C57BL/6 x CBA)F1 mice were injected intraperitoneally with a single dose of a 25% solution of ethanol (v:w), either on ...

Optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) is the most common congenital optic nerve anomaly and a leading cause of blindness in the USA. Although most cases of ONH occur as isolated cases within their respective families, the advancement in molecular diagnostic technology has made us realise that a substantial fraction of cases has identifiable genetic causes, typically de novo mutations. An increasing numb...

The congenital malformation known as optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) has been recognized in the past 30 years as an epidemic cause of congenital blindness. It was believed to occur either as an isolated anomaly or as a component of the syndrome of septo-optic dysplasia, which has evolved to include midline brain malformations and hypopituitarism. Evidence now suggests that ONH infrequently occurs ...

Embryonic retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons must extend toward and grow through the optic disc to exit the eye into the optic nerve. In the embryonic mouse eye, we found that immunoreactivity for the axon guidance molecule netrin-1 was specifically on neuroepithelial cells at the disk surrounding exiting RGC axons, and RGC axons express the netrin receptor, DCC (deleted in colorectal cancer). I...

Case 1—A nine-year-old white girl was seen at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in December, 1969, because of poor vision. The parents first sus­ pected that she had decreased vision at age two and one-half years after a bout of measles. At the age of six years, two examiners had recorded her visual acuity at 20/200 in each eye. At the age of seven years, because of the poor vision and pale disks...

Warburg syndrome is a recently defined autosomal recessive oculocerebral syndrome. It was previously given the acronym HARD +/- E, indicating what were regarded as the pathognomonic features, namely hydrocephalus, agyria, and retinal dysplasia with or without encephalocele. We report the case of a male infant with the typical cerebral features of hydrocephalus, agyria, and pseudoencephalocele, ...

The clinical phenotype of congenital pituitary hormone deficiency is variable and can be associated with a number of structural abnormalities of the central nervous system. We report three Japanese patients with congenital pituitary hormone deficiency and ophthalmological anomalies. Two of the patients initially showed strabismus and unilateral optic nerve hypoplasia. Thereafter, growth failure...