Abstract
Most forms of outer retinal degenerative diseases involve the ectopic accumulation of microglia/macrophages in the subretinal space, including retinitis pigmentosa. However, their role in the loss of photoreceptor function during retinal degeneration remains unknown. Here, we examined the effect of conditional microglial depletion on photoreceptor numbers and visual function in mice with the rhodopsin P23H mutation, a dominant form of retinitis pigmentosa in humans. We found that microglial depletion led to an elevated level of rhodopsin and increased photoreceptor layer thickness. However, overall electrophysiological functions of the retina were reduced with microglial depletion. Therefore, these results identify an essential role of microglia specially in preserving visual function in outer retinal degeneration.
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Abbreviations
- CNS:
-
central nervous system
- DAM:
-
disease-associated microglia
- ERG :
-
electroretinogram
- ONL:
-
outer nuclear layer
- RPE :
-
retinal pigment epithelium
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Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health grants R01EY030906 and R01EY021798 from the National Eye Institute, Bright Focus Foundation MDR grant, Research to Prevent Blindness (Unrestricted, Duke Eye Center), NIH/NEI Core grant P30EY005722 (Duke Eye Center). We would like to thank William J. Spencer and Mikael Klingeborn for their technical supports.
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Yu, C., Saban, D.R. (2023). Microglia Preserve Visual Function in a Mouse Model of Retinitis Pigmentosa with Rhodopsin-P23H Mutant. In: Ash, J.D., Pierce, E., Anderson, R.E., Bowes Rickman, C., Hollyfield, J.G., Grimm, C. (eds) Retinal Degenerative Diseases XIX. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1415. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27681-1_62
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27681-1_62
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