Albinism and Lasik

Albinism itself will normally not exclude a patient from conventional or custom wavefront Lasik, All-Laser Lasik, PRK, LASEK, Epi-Lasik, RLE, P-IOLs or other refractive surgery procedures, however many albinos are affected by nystagmus. It would be an absolute requirement that any laser used would have a tracking system that could adjust to the rapid eye movements of a patient with nystagmus.

Most lasers currently being manufactured for use in the United States use a method of eye tracking that should reduce or eliminate problems related to nystagmus.

If you are ready to choose a doctor to be evaluated for conventional or custom wavefront Lasik, All-Laser Lasik, PRK, LASEK, Epi-Lasik, NearVision CK, RLE, or any refractive surgery procedure, we highly recommend you consider a doctor who has been evaluated and certified by the USAEyes nonprofit organization. Locate a USAEyes Evaluated & Certified Lasik Laser Eye Surgeon.

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Current Albinism Medical Journal News...

Hermansky-Pudlak protein complexes, AP-3 and BLOC-1, differentially regulate presynaptic composition in the striatum and hippocampus.

Related Articles

Hermansky-Pudlak protein complexes, AP-3 and BLOC-1, differentially regulate presynaptic composition in the striatum and hippocampus.

J Neurosci. 2010 Jan 20;30(3):820-31

Authors: Newell-Litwa K, Chintala S, Jenkins S, Pare JF, McGaha L, Smith Y, Faundez V

Endosomal sorting mechanisms mediated by AP-3 and BLOC-1 are perturbed in Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome, a human genetic condition characterized by albinism and prolonged bleeding (OMIM #203300). Additionally, mouse models defective in either one of these complexes possess defective synaptic vesicle biogenesis (Newell-Litwa et al., 2009). These synaptic vesicle phenotypes were presumed uniform throughout the brain. However, here we report that AP-3 and BLOC-1 differentially regulate the composition of presynaptic terminals in the striatum and dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Quantitative immunoelectron microscopy demonstrated that the majority of AP-3 immunoreactivity in both wild-type striatum and hippocampus localizes to presynaptic axonal compartments, where it regulates synaptic vesicle size. In the striatum, loss of AP-3 (Ap3d(mh/mh)) resulted in decreased synaptic vesicle size. In contrast, loss of AP-3 in the dentate gyrus increased synaptic vesicle size, thus suggesting anatomically specific AP-3-regulatory mechanisms. Loss-of-function alleles of BLOC-1, Pldn(pa/pa), and Muted(mu/mu) revealed that this complex acts as a brain-region-specific regulator of AP-3. In fact, BLOC-1 deficiencies selectively reduced AP-3 and AP-3 cargo immunoreactivity in presynaptic compartments within the dentate gyrus both at the light and/or electron microscopy level. However, the striatum did not exhibit these BLOC-1-null phenotypes. Our results demonstrate that distinct brain regions differentially regulate AP-3-dependent synaptic vesicle biogenesis. We propose that anatomically restricted mechanisms within the brain diversify the biogenesis and composition of synaptic vesicles.

PMID: 20089890 [PubMed - in process]