PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Carnival game mimics eye growth

Cells replace coins in 'Penny Pusher' model

2015-03-26
(Press-News.org) Rockville, Md. (March 26, 2015) -- The motion of coins in a "Penny Pusher" carnival game is similar to the movement of cells in the eye's lens, as described in a new study published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS). This new insight may help scientists understand how the eye maintains its precise shape -- critical for clear vision -- and how cataracts develop.

"If the size, shape or position of the eye is not carefully regulated, we simply will not see clearly," said author Steven Bassnett, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. "However, the mechanisms that tightly control the growth of the eye remain largely unknown."

The recently published paper, The Penny Pusher: A Cellular Model of Lens Growth, describes how Bassnett's group studied mouse eyes for almost four years to learn more about how the eye's growth is regulated. During that time, they tracked where cells were multiplying on the surface of the eye's lens, the spherical, crystal clear portion of the eye just behind the iris (the colored ring near the eye's surface).

Experiments revealed that cells were primarily multiplying in a narrow line on the lens' surface. As new cells formed, they pushed their neighboring cells towards the lens' equator. Cells already at the equator were then pushed away from the surface and into the center of the lens.

This sequence of cellular motion -- where the addition of new cells push existing cells down into the center of the lens -- is similar to the movement of coins in the Penny Pusher carnival game. In the game, a player adds coins to a moving, elevated platform covered in other coins, causing coins at the far edge to fall onto a lower, larger platform and eventually to where the player can collect them.

"We made a physical model of the lens equator using layers of pennies to simulate the division and migration of the lens cells. Our Penny Pusher model looked very similar to [the carnival game]," said Bassnett.

Not only does the Penny Pusher model offer new insight into the regulation of the eye's shape, it suggests a possible mechanism for the development of cataracts. A cataract happens when the lens goes from crystal clear to cloudy, blurring one's vision.

According to the researchers, if a narrow line of cells on the lens' surface are forming new cells, then those relatively few cells could have a massive effect on the clarity of the lens. "We are currently examining whether mutations in the DNA of individual lens cells can be transmitted to large numbers of lens cells, potentially influencing the clarity of the tissue and resulting in cataract," explained Bassnett.

The researchers involved in this study believe that future success in this area of research could one day be credited to a seemingly unrelated carnival game.

INFORMATION:

The ARVO peer-reviewed journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS) publishes results from original hypothesis-based clinical and laboratory research studies, as well as Reviews, Perspectives, and Special Issues. IOVS 2012 Impact Factors ranks 5 out of 58 among ophthalmology journals. The journal is online-only and articles are published daily. ARVO, an organization made up of nearly 12,000 researchers from over 75 countries, advances research worldwide into understanding the visual system and preventing, treating and curing its disorders. In addition to IOVS, ARVO publishes the Journal of Vision and Translational Vision Science & Technology.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Mexican Americans confront high disability rates in later life

2015-03-26
Life expectancy for Hispanics in the U.S. currently outpaces other ethnic groups, yet a new study finds that Mexican Americans -- especially women who were born in Mexico -- are spending a high proportion of their later years with some form of disability, a fact that suggests a growing need for community assistance and long-term care in the future. These findings are reported in a new article published online in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences titled "Longer Lives, Sicker Lives? Increased Longevity and Extended Disability Among ...

Genetic mutation helps explain why, in rare cases, flu can kill

2015-03-26
Nobody likes getting the flu, but for some people, fluids and rest aren't enough. A small number of children who catch the influenza virus fall so ill they end up in the hospital -- perhaps needing ventilators to breathe -- even while their family and friends recover easily. New research by Rockefeller University scientists, published March 26 in Science, helps explain why: a rare genetic mutation. The researchers scrutinized blood and tissue samples from a young girl who, at the age of two-and-a-half, developed acute respiratory distress syndrome after catching the flu, ...

Forsyth research explains why popular antacids may increase chance of bone fractures

2015-03-26
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 26, 2015 - Newly published research from the Forsyth Institute details a discovery explaining why the 100 million Americans estimated to be taking prescription and over-the-counter antacid and heartburn medications may be at an increased risk of bone fractures. The new report from Forsyth, published in the March issue of the prestigious medical research journal PLOS Genetics, explains that stomach acid in the gastrointestinal tract plays an important role in helping the intestines absorb and transfer calcium to the skeletal system. While the ...

Nerve cells borrow a trick from their synapses to dispose of garbage

2015-03-26
Genetic defects affecting tiny channels in human nerve cells lead to several neurological diseases that result from aberrant nerve transmission, such as episodic ataxia, absence epilepsy, and migraines. These disorders have also been associated with neurodegeneration, but it has been less clear why this should be. The transmission of nerve impulses requires the perfect orchestration of a series of complex cellular events in a matter of fractions of a second. The membrane that surrounds a nerve cell is normally electrically polarized, but a nerve impulse triggers a Mexican ...

Ebola whole virus vaccine shown effective, safe in primates

2015-03-26
MADISON, Wis. -- An Ebola whole virus vaccine, constructed using a novel experimental platform, has been shown to effectively protect monkeys exposed to the often fatal virus. The vaccine, described today (March 26, 2015) in the journal Science, was developed by a group led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a University of Wisconsin-Madison expert on avian influenza, Ebola and other viruses of medical importance. It differs from other Ebola vaccines because as an inactivated whole virus vaccine, it primes the host immune system with the full complement of Ebola viral proteins and ...

To survive, a parasite mixes and matches its disguises, study suggests

To survive, a parasite mixes and matches its disguises, study suggests
2015-03-26
Orchestrated costume changes make it possible for certain nasty microbes to outsmart the immune system, which would otherwise recognize them by the telltale proteins they wear. By taking the first detailed look at how one such parasite periodically assumes a new protein disguise during a long-term infection, new research at Rockefeller University challenges many assumptions about one of the best-known examples of this strategy, called antigenic variation, in the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness. For research published on March 27 in Science, a team at Rockefeller ...

Antarctic ice shelves rapidly thinning

2015-03-26
A new study led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego researchers has revealed that the thickness of Antarctica's floating ice shelves has recently decreased by as much as 18 percent in certain areas over nearly two decades, providing new insights on how the Antarctic ice sheet is responding to climate change. Data from nearly two decades of satellite missions have shown that the ice volume decline is accelerating, according to a study published on March 26, 2015, in the journal Science and supported by NASA. Scripps graduate student Fernando Paolo, Scripps ...

Calcium channels play a role in neuronal homeostasis and elimination of toxic buildup of proteins

2015-03-26
HOUSTON - (March 26, 2015) - Taking out the garbage is a crucial step in housecleaning. Similarly, autophagy is the body's first-line of defense against the buildup up of toxic substances, degrading old organelles and proteins to provide new substrates and building blocks. In this way, autophagy prevents the buildup of "garbage" that can result in destruction of neurons and cause neurologic diseases. A forward genetic screen in Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) identified mutant copies, or alleles, of a gene called cacophony associated with defects in autophagy ...

What if the severity of our seasonal influenza were related to our genetic background?

2015-03-26
While most of us recover from influenza after a week, it can be a very severe disease, and even fatal in rare cases, with no reason for physicians to have expected such an outcome. By analysing the genome of a little girl who contracted a severe form of influenza at the age of two and a half years, researchers at the Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases (a joint French-American international laboratory), which brings together researchers from Inserm, Paris Descartes University, and physicians from the Paris public hospitals (AP-HP; Necker Hospital for Sick ...

New study shows bacteria can use magnetic particles to create a 'natural battery'

2015-03-26
New research shows bacteria can use tiny magnetic particles to effectively create a 'natural battery.' According to work published in journal Science on 27 March, the bacteria can load electrons onto and discharge electrons from microscopic particles of magnetite. This discovery holds out the potential of using this mechanism to help clean up environmental pollution, and other bioengineering applications. The European Association of Geochemistry is highlighting this work as especially interesting. According to study leader Dr James Byrne (Tübingen): "The geochemistry ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

For younger women, mental health now may predict heart health later

Missed opportunity: AEDs near cardiac arrests rarely used by bystanders

Eggs may not be bad for your heart after all

Alcohol raises heart disease risk, particularly among women

TTUHSC announces new center for nursing research

Adding just enough fuel to the fire

Impact of synbiotic supplements on the gut microbiome and overall health of penguins

Promising advances in organosilica membranes for separating organic liquid mixtures

Cell phone video technology unveils new method for analyzing walking and gait

Ancient isolation’s impact on modern ecology

Synaptic protein change during development offers clues on evolution and disease

How commercial rooftop solar power could bring affordable clean energy to low-income homes

Taking a closer look at pulmonary fibrosis genetics

Cats with MDR1 mutation at risk of severe reactions to popular medication

IOP Publishing and IPEM mandate reporting of sex and gender in research 

Dogs trained to detect trauma stress by smelling humans’ breath

Electronic device thermal management made simpler and slightly better!

Study: Dangerous surgical site infections can be reduced with simple prevention protocol

Genetic testing of patients with atrial fibrillation can alert clinicians to potential development of life-threatening conditions

Artificial Intelligence tool successfully predicts fatal heart rhythm

What progress has China made in agriculture green development over the past five years?

ALMA finds new molecular signposts in starburst galaxy

Open waste burning linked to air pollution in Northwestern Greenland

Google Street View reveals how built environment correlates with risk of cardiovascular disease

Connecting the dots to shape growth forces

Parental avoidance of toxic exposures could help prevent autism, ADHD in children, new study shows

Trends in the incidence of renal replacement therapy due to rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis in Japan, 2006–2021

Olympics not likely to swallow up skateboarding’s subversive nature into its corporate spectacle, study says

Looking after the NHS workforce must be a top priority, say experts

Prolonged use of certain hormone drugs linked to increased brain tumor risk

[Press-News.org] Carnival game mimics eye growth
Cells replace coins in 'Penny Pusher' model