Faculty Bibliography

Wound closure with cultured skin substitutes results in epithelium that is consistently hypopigmented. Hypothetically, addition of human melanocytes to cultured skin grafts may result in normal pigmentation of healed skin. Skin substitutes were composed of human epidermal keratinocytes and melanocytes, dermal fibroblasts, and collagen-glycosaminoglycan substrates, and were incubated for 12 d in media for keratinocyte growth (KG, n = 4), for keratinocyte differentiation containing four fatty acids and vitamin E with basic fibroblast growth factor (KDF, n = 6) or epidermal growth factor (KDE, n = 6), or for melanocyte growth (MG, n = 6) with phorbol ester and 5% fetal bovine serum. Skin substitutes were grafted orthotopically to full-thickness skin wounds (2 x 2 cm) on athymic mice, and scored for percent original wound size (+/- SEM), visible pigmentation (number pigmented/n), and positive staining for human leukocyte antigens (HLA)-ABC after 6 weeks on the mice. The data show that cultured skin grafts containing human melanocytes that are incubated in KDE or MG media have statistically significant reduction in wound contraction, 1:1 correlation of expression of pigment and HLA-ABC, and increased frequency of pigmentation after healing compared to incubation in KG or KDF media. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed the presence of melanocytes, melanosomes, and pigment transfer to keratinocytes in pigmented skin. These results suggest that survival and differentiated function of cultured epithelium can support melanization of skin, and that skin analogues exposed to phorbol ester in vitro can support skin pigmentation after wound healing

Several laser technologies including 1053-nm picosecond, excimer, erbium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet, and neodymium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Nd:YAG) have been studied for use in the removal of cataractous lens tissue. Nd:YAG laser phacolysis involves laser pulses striking a titanium target that are incorporated into an irrigation-aspiration probe. With further refinement, Nd:YAG laser phacolysis may provide an alternative means of lens removal through a small incision, however, further study is required

The formation and propagation of shock waves created by the interaction of high powered Nd:YAG laser pulses with a titanium target are photographed and analyzed. The titanium target is located at the distal end of a probe, similar to an irrigation/aspiration probe used in cataract surgery, and the Nd:YAG laser is delivered by a cladded 300 microns quartz fiber. This device, and the results of this study, are being applied to develop a device for fragmenting nuclear material for cataract extraction

Over a 1-year period, a cystic bluish coloration developed in the most medial aspect at the margin of the right upper eyelid of a 40-year-old man. The clinical diagnoses were either a conjunctival inclusion cyst or an adnexal cyst, possibly of the gland of Moll. The excised specimen was studied histopathologically and exhibited a lining that was virtually indistinguishable from that of the normal canaliculus, except for hyperplasia of the cellular wall and the focal presence of a superficial mucin-producing columnar cell monolayer at the lumen. The medial edge of the excised specimen showed a merging of the cyst into a nonectatic portion of the canaliculus. Inflammation in the wall of the cyst and in this terminal portion of the canaliculus was not identified. This is believed to be a unique entity of an idiopathic ectasia with mild epithelial proliferation of a segment of the canaliculus. The authors have termed this condition canaliculops, to draw a parallel between it and ectasia of the ducts of the lacrimal gland, so-called dacryops