Faculty Bibliography

PURPOSE: To compare visual acuity outcomes and adverse events in patients with retained lens fragments who underwent same-day versus later pars plana vitrectomy (PPV). DESIGN: Retrospective, interventional case series. METHODS: Single-center study evaluating all patients with retained lens fragments that underwent PPV over a 22-year period (1990 through 2011). RESULTS: The study included 569 eyes of 568 patients with a mean age of 74.6 years and a median follow-up of 8 months (range, 1 week to 100 months). One hundred seventeen patients (22%) underwent same-day vitrectomy, 131 patients (23%) underwent PPV within 1 week, and 321 patients (57%) underwent PPV more than 1 week later. Median time to vitrectomy in the same week group was 5 days, compared with 22 days in the delayed group. At the last examination, 61%, 63%, and 56% of patients undergoing PPV on the same day, within 1 week, and more than 1 week later, respectively, achieved best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of 20/40 or better (P = .35), and 16%, 15%, and 21%, respectively, had BCVA of 20/200 or worse (P = .29). There were no differences between groups when assessing cystoid macular edema (P = .96), retinal detachment (P = .096), elevated intraocular pressure (P = .88), or suprachoroidal hemorrhage (P = .26). CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing same-day versus a later PPV (within 1 week or more than 1 week later) for retained lens fragments had similar visual acuity outcomes and complication rates. Although same-day surgery may be attractive logistically in many cases, our retrospective data suggest equivalent outcomes for surgical timing.

HuR is a member of the Drosophila Elav protein family that binds mRNA degradation sequences and prevents RNase-mediated degradation. Such HuR-mediated mRNA stabilization, which is stimulated by integrin engagement and is controlled at the level of HuR nuclear export, is critically involved in T-cell cytokine production. However, HuR's role in macrophage soluble factor production, in particular in response to angiogenic stimuli, has not yet been established. We show that the labile transcripts that encode vascular endothelial growth factor and matrix metalloproteinase-9 are stabilized when murine macrophages adhere to the beta(2) integrin ligand intercellular adhesion molecule-1. This mRNA stabilization response was absent in bone marrow-derived macrophages obtained from conditional macrophage-specific HuR knockout mice. The microvascular angiogenic response to an inflammatory stimulus (ie, subcutaneous polyvinyl alcohol sponge implantation) was markedly diminished in these macrophage HuR knockout mice despite the equal levels of macrophage localization to those observed in littermate wild-type controls. Furthermore, blood flow recovery and ischemic muscle neovascularization after femoral artery ligation were impaired in the conditional macrophage-specific HuR knockout mice. These results demonstrate that dynamic effects on mRNA, mediated by the RNA-binding and RNA-stabilizing protein HuR, are required for macrophage production of angiogenic factors, which play critical roles in the neovascular responses to a variety of stimuli, including tissue ischemia.