Purpose To report clinical findings and characteristics of pigment dispersion syndrome (PDS) in Chinese patients. Methods PDS suspects with any one of the following signs: corneal endothelial pigmentation, iris transillumination defects (ITDs), pigment granule dusting on anterior iris surface, posterior iris bowing, trabecular meshwork (TM) pigmentation, and lenticular or zonular pigmentation were evaluated for PDS at the glaucoma specialty clinic at Beijing Tongren Eye Centre. Diagnosis of PDS required at least two of the following signs: Krukenberg spindle, moderate-toheavy TM pigmentation (XScheie II) and any degree of lenticular and/or zonular pigmentation. Results Eighteen patients (12 males and six females) were identified as having PDS during a 1-year period, with mean age of 35.5 ± 7.0 years (range, 22-49). All but two eyes from two patients had myopia of À0.5 D or greater, with mean spherical equivalent power of À5.20 ± 5.80 D (range, À24.75 ± 0.5). The average IOP at initial diagnosis was 33.7±10.5 mm Hg (range, 16-56). Fifteen patients (83.3%) were found to have pigmentary glaucoma at their initial diagnosis. All patients showed homogenous increased TM pigmentation as well as lenticular and/or zonular pigmentation. 61.1% of patients (11 of 18) had Krukenberg spindle. None of the patients exhibited spoke-like midperipheral ITDs except for trace-isolated transillumination in both eyes of the two patients. Conclusions The most common clinical findings in Chinese PDS patients include homogeneous TM pigmentation and pigment granule dusting on lens zonules and/or posterior peripheral lens surface. ITDs are uncommon in Chinese patients with PDS.

It has been documented that over-expression of metastasis-associated in colon cancer-1 (MACC1) is related to poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This study investigates the function and underlying molecular mechanisms of MACC1 in lung adenocarcinoma. Here, we firstly employed immunohistochemistry, western blotting, real-time PCR, and online database to demonstrate that MACC1 expression was elevated in tumor tissues compared with tumoradjacent or normal tissues. Real-time PCR, CCK-8, colony formation western blotting, Hoechst staining, and flow cytometry assays then evaluated the effects of MACC1 knockdown on the cell cycle, cell proliferation and apoptosis in A549  and H1299 adenocarcinoma cells. Result highlighted that MACC1 knockdown inhibited cell proliferation, induced G0/ G1 phase arrest and promoted cell apoptosis in vitro. Mechanistic analysis revealed it also up-regulated expression levels of bax, cleaved-caspase-3 and cleaved-PARP while down-regulating cyclin D1, c-myc, bcl-2, and β-catenin expression in A549 cells. Intriguingly, up-regulation of β-catenin suppressed G0/G1 phase arrest and apoptosis in MACC1-silenced A549 cells and this was accompanied by increased levels of cyclin D1, c-myc, and bcl-2. Collectively, our results indicate that MACC1 knockdown effectively inhibited cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis of lung adenocarcinoma cells by regulating the β-catenin pathway.

Purpose To investigate the dosage dependence of the Ginkgo biloba effect on retinal ganglion cell survival in the rat optic nerve crush model. Methods The study included 56 SpragueDawley rats, the right optic nerve of which was crushed in a standardized manner. Two hours after the crush and once daily during the follow-up, the animals received intragastral applications of saline (saline group; n ¼ 13), or of a G. biloba extract of 0.25% concentration (n ¼ 14; low-dosage group), 1% concentration (n ¼ 15; medium-dosage group), or 4% concentration (n ¼ 14; high-dosage group). At 23 days after the optic nerve crush, the retinal ganglion cells were retrogradely labelled by injecting 3% fluorogold into the superior colliculi of the brain. At 4 weeks after baseline, the animals were killed. Retinal flat mount photographs were assessed for number and density of the retinal ganglion cells. Results The mean survival rate defined as the ratio of retinal ganglion cell density in the right eye with optic nerve crash divided by the retinal ganglion cell density in left eye without optic nerve intervention increased significantly (Po0.001) from 58.4 ± 9.0% in the saline group to 68.5 ± 5.7% in the low-dosage group, to 73.7 ± 6.4% in the medium-dosage group, and to 74.2 ± 6.8% in the high-dosage group. Conclusions Intragastral applications of a G. biloba extract applied after an experimental and standardized optic nerve crush in rats were associated with a higher survival rate of retinal ganglion cells in a dosage-dependent manner.