Blepharospasm has been rarely reported as a consequence of structural lesions of the thalamus. We present a patient with bilateral blepharospasm due to a non-vascular thalamomesencephalic lesion of the nondominant hemisphere. A disruption among internuclear pathways linking the non-dominant cerebral hemisphere, the basal ganglia, thalamus and the brainstem, is a possible pathogenic mechanism.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is neuropathologically characterized by the deposition of Amyloid-β (Aβ) in plaques. Interestingly, a significant number of neurons in AD brains display aberrant re-entry of cell cycle and expression of associated proteins. While this has been observed in a number of Aβ Precursor Protein (APP) transgenic mouse models of AD, the temporal and spatial profile of neuronal cell cycle protein expression was unclear. Here, we show that neuronal expression of the cell cycle protein CyclinD1 together with pro-apoptotic Caspase-3 is limited to the frontal cortex of young transgenic APP23 mice, an area that displays with atrophy in aging mice. Expression of the cell cycle proteins CyclinD1, Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 4 (CDK4) and Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) in the brains of aging APP23 mice were limited to microglia and astrocytes, while we did not observe neuronal cell cycle protein expression in neurons. Taken together, our data supports that aberrant neuronal cell cycle events contribute early on to AD, while later cell cycle activation in the CNS associated with Aβ is linked to reactive gliosis.

Recent findings elucidate the significance of lower levels of serum IGF (insulin-like growth factor-1) in premature neonates compared to full-term gestations. IGF is a key promoter of neo-neuronal myelination and connectivity in the developing brain. The lower concentration of serum IGF in preemies than in term infants could account for a higher incidence of neuropathologic outcomes such as autism in the former than the latter. A practical, economical approach for reducing this potential risk could be breast-feeding exclusively for the first year of life in both cases since human milk has a higher concentration of IGF than bovine milk or formula