In this study 8 patients with Alport's syndrome are presented. The ocular manifestations of these patients were retinal flecks, macular depigmentation, microspherophakia and anterior lenticonus. One patient revealed bilateral macular hole which was an unusual feature. Four patients had renal biopsies with the characteristic electron microscopic changes of the disease. According to these findings our conclusion is that Alport's syndrome is a disorder of selected basement membranes.

Permanent ischaemia of the rat testis results in the formation of fusion multinucleate cells and macrophages from cells of the innermost cellular layer, in the ischaemic testis. The macrophages are replaced by fibroblasts after 25 days of ischaemia. Similar changes are visible in the contralateral testis which also demonstrates the evolution of multinucleate spermatids by karyokinesis without cytokinesis. Binucleate spermatids and double-headed spermatozoa have only one acrosome, and spermatozoa with two middle pieces are enveloped by a single cytoplasm. The sequential ultrastructural changes following ischaemia are described and it is suggested that cells of the inner cellular layer can alter their characteristics according to demand.

SummaryAkkaraman sheep (Ovis aries Linnaeus, 1758) are densely breed in the region of Middle Anatolian in Turkey. Anatolian wild sheep (Ovis gmelini anatolica Valenciennes, 1856) is also subspecies of a wild sheep existing in the exact center of these lands and exists as little number only in the place of Bozdağ at the east of Konya. In this study, it is aimed that the mandibular bones of the Akkaraman sheep and Anatolian wild sheep are compared for morphologic and geometric morphometrics. In this study, the mandibular bones of 16 Anatolian wild sheep and 10 specimen Akkaraman sheep were used. In this study, the mandibular bones of the species were appeared quite similar. The geometric morphometrics analysis clearly determined the morphological differences between both species. On the lateral direction of the mandibular bones of each species, mutual ten each pieces homolog landmarks were used. In the analysis of the relative warp, RW1 explained 56.46% of total variation and RW2 explained 11.40% of total variation. Evident differences were determined among all of the homologous landmarks (except to anterio-ventral corner's point of P 2 tooth) used at the mandible of Anatolian wild sheep and Akkaraman sheep. As the most evident, firstly, posterio-ventral corner of M 3 tooth and homologous landmarks in the levels of anterior directed combination of lines of the angel for the vessels and dorsal-ventral masseteric ridges were observed..

-Genetic relationships among Turkish sheep breeds were analysed on the basis of 30 microsatellite markers. Phylogenetic analyses based on the estimation of genetic distances revealed the closest relationships for the Akkaraman, Morkaraman and Tuj breeds, which were clearly differentiated from the others in the dendrogram. Our pattern was completely confirmed by results from the Factorial Correspondence Analysis. All the results described analysing either population parameters or individuals revealed a clear separation between the fat-tailed group and the others. These results, based on nuclear DNA, are discussed along with those already reported for these breeds through the investigation of mitochondrial DNA, which had revealed the invaluable significance of the genetic background of these Turkish sheep. DNA microsatellites / local sheep breeds / genetic relationships

The present study was designed to obtain the precise ultrastructural status of the middle ear mucosa of patients to whom ventilation tubes were applied for the treatment of secretory otitis media (SOM). This study comprised 14 children with SOM aged 5-11. Normal epithelium obtained from otosclerotic patients as controls was composed of three main cell types; basal, ciliated, and secretory. Electron microscopic observations revealed that ciliated cells were almost completely absent in the epithelium of patients with SOM. Secretory cells, on the other hand, were noted to be increased in number with cytoplasmic features indicating active secretory phase; abundant secretory granules in these cells featured both serous and mucoid characteristics. Following the application of ventilation tubes, the micrographs exhibited a vast number of ciliated cells. Furthermore, the secretory cells were less conspicuous and the secretory granules were mostly serous in type. The ultrastructural findings of this investigation strongly suggest that the application of ventilation tubes in cases of SOM stimulates ciliated cell regeneration, inhibits secretion of mucoid material, and activates serous secretion; all of which eventually shorten the recovery period.