Authors: Colleen L Zhu Yerina Ji EunJin Lee Norberto M Grzywacz
Publish Date: 2012/11/10
Volume: 351, Issue: 1, Pages: 29-40
Abstract
We have recently described the surviving cones and Müllerglia process remodeling in retinitis pigmentosa RP and shown that rod degeneration triggers the reorganization of the cone mosaic into an orderly array of rings Within these rings remodeled Müllerglia processes envelope cones Here we report the spatiotemporal pattern of healthy rods their relationship with dying rods and the way that rod death stimulates the modification of cone spatialdistribution patterns and Müllerglia processes in the S334terline3 rat a transgenic model expressing a rhodopsin mutation that causes RP The spatial patterns of rods cones microglial and Müller cells were labeled by immunocytochemistry with celltypespecific markers at various stages of deveopment in rat wholemount retinas Spatial patterns of dying cells were examined by TUNEL staining The S334ter rod mosaic began to develop small holes around postnatal day 10 These hotspots of cell death progressively increased in size leaving larger rodless holes behind The holes were temporarily occupied by active microglial cells before being replaced by remodeled Müllercell processes Our data suggest that the hot spots of rod death create holes in the rod mosaic early in retinal degeneration and that the resulting pattern triggers the modification of the spatialdistribution patterns of cones and glia cellsWe thank Dr Matthew M LaVail for kindly providing us with animals and Dr Cherly Craft and Dr Biju Thomas for their antibodies We are grateful to Junkwan Lee WanQing Yu Nadav Ivzan and Arvind Iyer for discussion during the performance of this project and to Denise Steiner for administrative support
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