Sympathetic ophthalmia is a rare bilateral granulomatous inflammation that follows accidental or surgical insult to the uvea of one eye. Onset of sympathetic ophthalmia can be insidious or acute, with recurrent periods of exacerbation. Clinical presentation shows mutton-fat keratic precipitates, choroidal infiltrations, and Dalen-Fuchs nodules. Histopathology reveals diffuse or nodular granulomatous inflammation of the uvea. Prevention and treatment strategies for sympathetic ophthalmia are currently limited to two modalities, enucleation of the injured eye and immunosuppressive therapy, aimed at controlling inflammation. The etiology and pathophysiology of the disease is still unclear but is largely thought to be autoimmune in nature. Recent insight on the molecular pathology of the disease as well as developments in imaging technology have furthered both the understanding on the autoimmune process in sympathetic ophthalmia and the targeting of prevention and treatment strategies for the future.

Groups of 3 males and 4 females were housed in a seminatural environment for a period of 8 days. Female sociosexual behaviours were recorded and analysed from the beginning of behavioural oestrus (defined as the first lordosis response observed in the environment) until the end of oestrus (defined to occur at the moment of a lordosis that was not followed by another one within 60 min). The duration of behavioural oestrus varied between 4.05 and 10.87 h, with a mean of 7.41 ± 0.49 h. In order to analyse changes in behaviour during oestrus, the entire period was divided in 5% segments for each female. The frequency and/or duration of some behaviours changed during the period of oestrus, while others remained stable. Most remarkable among the latter are the frequency of lordosis and the lordosis quotient. From the start of oestrus until the end, the females responded with lordosis to every male mount. Rejections were most frequent at the beginning of the period of oestrus. Then there was a decline, and thereafter rejections remained at a low level, even when the end of oestrus was approached. Paracopulatory behaviours reached a maximum towards the end of the first quarter of the oestrus period. There was no evident decline at the end of oestrus. Females having a high frequency of lordosis showed more paracopulatory behaviours and were pursued more by the males than females with low lordosis frequency. When the behaviour of females with a large number of offspring was compared to that of females with a low number of offspring, no difference in sexual behaviours was found. Comparisons between the females’ behaviour in response to preferred (either defined as the male producing the largest number of lordosis responses or as the male that was most sniffed by the female) and non-preferred males revealed a few minor differences. Location of behaviour was also analysed. Comparisons were made between the environment’s open area and burrow and between different sectors in these parts. Some important differences were found. This is the first detailed description of female rat sociosexual behaviour during the entire period of behavioural oestrus in a seminatural environment.

Even though insects have comparably small brains, they achieve astoundingly complex behaviors. One example is flying moths tracking minute amounts of pheromones using olfactory circuits. The tracking distance can be up to 1 km, which makes it essential that male moths respond efficiently and reliably to very few pheromone molecules. The male-specific macroglomerular complex (MGC) in the moth antennal lobe contains circuitry dedicated to pheromone processing. Output neurons from this region project along three parallel pathways, the medial, mediolateral, and lateral tracts. The MGC-neurons of the lateral tract are least described and their functional significance is mainly unknown. We used mass staining, calcium imaging, and intracellular recording/staining to characterize the morphological and physiological properties of these neurons in the noctuid moth, Helicoverpa armigera. All lateral-tract MGC neurons targeted the column, a small region within the superior intermediate neuropil. We identified this region as a unique converging site for MGC lateral-tract neurons responsive to pheromones, as well as a dense congregating site for plant odor information since a substantial number of lateral-tract neurons from ordinary glomeruli (OG) also terminates in this region. The lateral-tract MGC-neurons responded with a shorter peak latency than the well-described neurons in the medial tract. Different from the medial-tract MGC neurons encoding odor quality important for species-specific signal identification, those in the lateral tract convey a more robust and rapid signal-potentially important for fast control of hard-wired behavior.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common yet complex retinal degeneration that causes irreversible central blindness in the elderly. Pathology is widely believed to follow loss of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and photoreceptor degeneration. Here we report aberrant expression of interleukin-17A (IL17A) and the receptor IL17RC in the macula of AMD patients. In vitro, IL17A induces RPE cell death characterized by the accumulation of cytoplasmic lipids and autophagosomes with subsequent activation of pro-apoptotic Caspase-3 and Caspase-9. This pathology is reduced by siRNA knockdown of IL17RC. IL17-dependent retinal degeneration in a mouse model of focal retinal degeneration can be prevented by gene therapy with adeno-associated virus vector encoding soluble IL17 receptor. This intervention rescues RPE and photoreceptors in a MAPK-dependent process. The IL17 pathway plays a key role in RPE and photoreceptor degeneration and could hold therapeutic potential in AMD.