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To evaluate the macular function of Japanese patients with a trinucleotide repeat expansion in the spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) gene. Methods: Ophthalmic findings in patients whose DNA analysis revealed expanded alleles of the trinucleotide repeat in the SCA7 gene were evaluated. Results: Trinucleotide repeat was expanded from 40 to 48 in affected patients (control subjects, 12 repeats). Affected patients were characterized by different degrees of visual acuity decrease (0.09-0.9), a tritan axis color vision, a coarse granular appearance of the macular region on scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, depression of multifocal electroretinograms, and macular degeneration. However, pigmentary changes were not observed

Autologous iris pigment epithelial cell transplantation was performed on patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Autologous IPE cell culture was performed using autologous serum after iridectomy in 7 patients with AMD. The cell suspensions (2 approximately 20 x 10(4) cells) were transplanted into the submacular lesion of individuals after removal of neovascular membranes. Subsequent ophthalmological examinations, including best corrected visual acuity and fluorescein or indocyanine green angiography, were performed. In addition, 15 patients with AMD, who underwent removal of neovascular membrane without transplantation, were evaluated as non randomized controls. Varying degrees of atrophy or defects of choriocapillaris and retinal pigment epithelium were observed in all of the patients. No cystoid macular edema or fluorescein leakage was observed after treatment, but window defects were present. No patient had decreased visual acuity. One treated patient developed mild subretinal fibrosis and an other patient developed mild preretinal fibrosis, however no difference was significant when compared with the control. In conclusion, the treatment resulted in no significant improvement in macular function, as compared with the control; however, no rejection or deterioration in visual acuity occurred up to the 13 month follow up.

The mesospheric sodium layer was measured for 42 nights during the period from April to October, 1985, at Syowa Station (69°00′ S, 39°35′ E), Antarctica, by using a dye laser radar (lidar) tuned to the D2 line of sodium. This observation was made as part of the Middle Atmosphere Program (MAP). In contrast to the results obtained at mid‐latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the seasonal variation in abundance showed no significant winter maximum. Further, there was no apparent seasonal variation in the vertical distribution of sodium density. However, we observed oscillatory variations in abundance with a period of about 40 days. The nocturnal variations in the sodium density profile have a wavelike structure with a vertical wavelength of 10 to 16 km and a period of 3 to 8 hours, which suggests strongly that gravity waves are propagating upward through the sodium layer. The sodium lidar measurements during auroral activity give evidence that the layer is disturbed associated with the auroral breakup event.

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