The Journal of Neuroscience, July 9, 2003, 23(14):6050-6057
Previous Article | Next Article 
Free Radical Trap Phenyl-N-tert-Butylnitrone Protects against Light Damage But Does Not Rescue P23H and S334ter Rhodopsin Transgenic Rats from Inherited Retinal Degeneration
Isabelle Ranchon,1,3
Matthew M. LaVail,4
Yashige Kotake,5 and
Robert E. Anderson1,2,3
Departments of 1Ophthalmology and
2Cell Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences
Center, 3Dean A. McGee Eye Institute, Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma 73104, 4Beckman Vision Center, University of
California San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143-0730, and
5Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma 73104
 |
Abstract
|
|---|
Phenyl-N-tert-butylnitrone (PBN) protects rat retinas against
light damage. Because the degenerative process involved in light damage and
inherited retinal degeneration both lead to a common final cell death,
apoptosis, we used transgenic rats with a P23H or S334ter rhodopsin mutation
to test the effects of PBN on retinal degeneration and light damage and the
susceptibility of the transgenic rats to light damage. In the first study,
3-week-old mutant and wild-type rats were given no drug, 0.25% PBN in drinking
water, or 0.25% PBN in drinking water plus three daily intraperitoneal
injections of PBN (100 mg/kg, i.p., every 8 hr). Electroretinograms were
recorded at postnatal day 49, after which the rats were killed for
morphometric analysis. There was no photoreceptor rescue by PBN in P23H or
S334ter rats, as evidenced by equivalent loss of function and photoreceptor
cells in the three treatment groups. In the second study, P23H, S334ter, and
wild-type rats were exposed for 24 hr to 2700 lux light. The rats were
untreated or treated with PBN (50 mg/kg per injection, every 6 hr, starting
before exposure). ERGs were recorded before and 1 d after exposure. Animals
were killed 6 d later for morphometric analysis. PBN protected wild-type and
P23H but not S334ter retinas from light damage. S334ter retinas were
relatively less susceptible to light damage than P23H and wild-type rats. The
results suggest that the initiating event(s) that causes photoreceptor cell
death in the mutated rats is different from that which occurs in light damage,
although both ultimately undergo an apoptotic cell death.
Key words: neuroprotection; inherited retinal degeneration; free radical; phenyl-N-tert-butylnitrone; electroretinography; light damage
 |
Introduction
|
|---|
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a genetically and clinically heterogeneous
group of retinal degenerative diseases, affecting
1 in 3500 people
(Pagon, 1988
). Symptoms
include night blindness, progressive loss of peripheral visual field, and
eventual loss of central vision caused by degeneration of photoreceptor cells.
A number of genes responsible for RP have now been identified
(Dryja and Li, 1995
;
Sullivan and Daiger, 1996
),
most of which are expressed specifically in photoreceptor cells, and the
degeneration primarily affects photoreceptor cells. There are now >100
different mutations in the rod photoreceptor visual pigment rhodopsin that are
associated with RP (RetNet;
http://sph.uth.tmc.edu/Ret-Net/).
The rhodopsin molecule has distinct regions that are specialized for light
capture, initiation of the phototransduction cascade, and rapid deactivation
after light absorption. Other regions ensure its proper folding and sorting
within the photoreceptor membranes. Therefore, it is not surprising that the
phenotype depends on the location of the mutation and may be expressed as
either dominant or recessive RP. Transgenic rat lines have been developed that
express one of two mutated rhodopsin genes, as well as the wild-type gene
(Steinberg et al., 1996
). In
S334ter rats, the opsin transgene contains a termination codon at residue 334,
resulting in the expression of a rhodopsin protein lacking the 15 C-terminal
amino acids. In P23H rats, the opsin transgene contains a histidine
substitution at the proline 23 position. The P23H transgenic rats have a slow
rod degeneration with normal cone function initially, consistent with the
clinical findings of P23H patients
(Machida et al., 2000
).
Although transgenic rats and other animal models have been developed to
study the cellular etiologies of inherited retinal degenerations and to test
potential therapies, there is still little known about the molecular
mechanisms leading to photoreceptor cell death, and there are no adequate
therapies for RP at present. Because mutations in integral, peripheral, and
soluble proteins can all lead eventually to cell death, there must be a number
of initiating events. However, most studies to date have found that the
photoreceptor cells undergo apoptosis as the final common death pathway
converging the primary defects
(Remé et al., 1998
).
Light-induced damage represents a suitable model system to study retinal
degeneration, because apoptotic cell death underlies both light-induced damage
(Li et al., 1995
;
Organisciak et al., 1995
) and
inherited retinal degeneration (Chang et
al., 1993
; Lolley et al.,
1994
; Portera-Caillau et al.,
1994
; Tso et al.,
1994
) in various animal models. This suggested that strategies
used in light-damage studies could be applied to animals with inherited
retinal degenerations. Using this approach, LaVail and coworkers showed that
the intravitreal administration of basic FGF (bFGF)
(Faktorovich et al., 1992
) and
other neurotrophic factors (LaVail et al.,
1992
) rescued photoreceptors of albino rats from light damage.
bFGF also prevented inherited retinal degeneration in the Royal College of
Surgeons (RCS) rat (Faktorovich et al.,
1990
). Other classes of survival factors that protect
photoreceptors from light damage or mutations have also been discovered,
including
-2-adrenergic agonists
(Wen et al., 1996
), a
melatonin receptor antagonist (Sugawara et
al., 1998
), a caspase-3 inhibitor
(Liu et al., 1999
), pigment
epithelium-derived factor (Cayouette et
al., 1999
; Cao et al.,
2001
), lens epithelium-derived growth factor
(Machida et al., 2001
), heat
shock protein (Yu et al.,
2001
), and additional neurotrophic factors such as glial cell
line-derived neurotrophic factor (Frasson
et al., 1999
) and ciliary neurotrophic factor
(LaVail et al., 1998
). The
antioxidants vitamin C (Organisciak et
al., 1991
) and dimethylthiourea
(Organisciak et al., 1992
)
have been shown to protect against light-induced damage. Recently, Organisciak
et al. (2002) found that dimethylthiourea protected P23H and S334ter
transgenic rats from light damage; its effect on the inherited retinal
degeneration was not studied.
Phenyl-N-tert-butylnitrone (PBN) is a free radical scavenger that
is frequently used as a spin trap agent in free radical research. PBN given
intravenously to gerbils was found to be neuroprotective in an
ischemiareperfusion experimental paradigm
(Novelli et al., 1986a
). More
recently, PBN has been shown to have a variety of pharmacological effects,
including reduction in the mortality associated with endotoxin shock
(McKechnie et al., 1986
;
Novelli et al., 1986b
;
Hamburger and McCay, 1989
;
Miyajima and Kotake, 1995
),
neuroprotection in ischemia-reperfusion and aging models
(Phillis and Clough-Helfman,
1990
; Carney et al.,
1991
), amelioration of the CNS damage associated with the human
immunodeficiency virus envelope protein glycoprotein 120
(Tabatabaie et al., 1996
), and
prevention of streptozotocin-induced diabetes in mice
(Tabatabaie et al., 1997
).
Other reports have indicated that the action of PBN is related to the
expression of various cytokine genes and to the activation of the
transcription factor nuclear factor
B
(Kotake et al., 1998
) and
activator protein-1 (AP-1) (Sang et al.,
1999
).
We have shown that PBN protects the retina against light-induced apoptosis
(Ranchon et al., 2001
,
2002
). Because of the common
apoptotic degenerative pathway in both inherited and light-induced retinal
degenerations, and because some of the agents described above were
neuroprotective in both types of degeneration, we tested the effect of chronic
administration of PBN on the degeneration induced by the S334ter and P23H
transgenes in the rat retina. In addition, because P23H rats
(Nir et al., 2001
; Organisciak
et al., 2002) and mice (Naash et al.,
1996a
,b
;
Wang et al., 1997
) are more
susceptible to light damage than wild-type animals, and the onset of
degeneration in P23H-3 and S334ter-4 rats occurs between postnatal day 10
(P10) and P15, approximately coinciding with eye opening (P12), we considered
that light might be a contributing factor in the degenerative mechanism.
Therefore, we tested the effect of PBN on light-induced damage in P23H and
S334ter rat retinas.
 |
Materials and Methods
|
|---|
Materials. PBN was synthesized by Dr. Yashige Kotake (Oklahoma
Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, OK). All other chemicals were
reagent grade and purchased from Sigma (St. Louis, MO), except as
indicated.
Animals. Wild-type control rats used in this study were Sprague
Dawley rats (Harlan, Indianapolis, IN). Heterozygous P23H-3 and S334ter-4 rats
were generated by mating homozygous P23H (line 3) or S334ter (line 4) rats
with wild-type Sprague Dawley rats. (The transgenic line designations are
omitted hereafter for brevity.) All animals were born and kept in dim cyclic
light (12 hr light/dark cycle; 510 lux) and had ad libitum
access to lab chow and water. These two particular lines were chosen because
they show a significant degree of retinal degeneration by 7 weeks of age,
which would allow the determination of any rescue by the various experimental
treatments. The animal care strictly conformed to the Association for Research
in Vision and Ophthalmology statement for the Use of Animals in Vision and
Ophthalmic Research and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Guidelines for Animals in Research. All protocols were reviewed and approved
by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees of the University of
Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Dean A. McGee Eye Institute.
Electroretinography. Rats were dark-adapted overnight and prepared
under dim red light for the ERG study. They were anesthetized with
intramuscular injections of ketamine (120 mg/kg body weight) and xylazine (6
mg/kg body weight). One drop of 1% tropicamide was applied to the cornea to
dilate the pupil. The white light stimulus used to evoke ERGs was delivered in
10 msec pulses by an integrating sphere (Lab-sphere, North Sutton, NH) at an
interval between flashes of 60 sec. ERGs were recorded with gold electrodes at
six intensities presented in ascending order, starting below threshold, to
obtain the b-wave sensitivity curves. The software program Origin 6.0
(Microcal Software, Northampton, MA) was used to fit the data of each rat,
giving the saturated a-wave (Amax) and b-wave
(Bmax) amplitudes.
Histology. Rats were killed by carbon dioxide asphyxiation for
light microscopic evaluation of retinal structure. Immediately after death,
eyes were excised, placed in fixative (4% paraformaldehyde, 2% trichloroacetic
acid, 20% isopropyl alcohol, 2% zinc chloride, and 72% distilled water), and
embedded in paraffin. Sections of 5 µm were cut along the vertical meridian
through the optic nerve. Illustrations of photoreceptor degeneration in the
P23H line 3 and S334ter line 4 mutant rhodopsin transgenic rats
(Lewin et al., 1998
;
Liu et al., 1999
;
Machida el al., 2000
;
Green et al., 2001
;
Nir et al., 2001
; Organisciak
et al., 2002) and the protection from light damage by PBN (Ranchon et al.,
2001
,
2002
) have been presented
previously and will not be repeated here. Instead, a quantitative,
morphometric assessment of photoreceptor cell loss was performed. The
thickness of the outer nuclear layer (ONL) was measured at 0.5 mm distances
from the optic nerve to the inferior and superior ora serrata and plotted as
shown in Figure 2. The area
under the curves was integrated using the Origin 6.0 program (Microcal
Software), and the results were used for quantitative comparisons. The ONL
area is proportional to ONL thickness and is a measure of the number of viable
photoreceptor cells (Williams and Howell,
1983
; Michon et al.,
1991
).
Rhodopsin measurement. Thirty-day-old rats were dark-adapted
overnight, killed the next morning, and their retinas removed under dim red
light. Two retinas from the same rat (n = 6) were homogenized in 500
µl of 67 mM phosphate buffer containing 2%
N-octyl-
-D-glucopyranoside (Calbiochem, La Jolla,
CA) and shaken at 4°C for 1 hr. Hydroxylamine (25 µl, 1 M)
was added, and the samples were centrifuged at 4°C for 30 min at 27,000
x g. The clear supernatant was scanned from 400 to 800 nm
(Ultrospec 3000; Amersham Biosciences, Cambridge, UK), after which the samples
were bleached by exposure to the room light for at least 15 min and scanned
again. The difference in absorption at 500 nm was used to determine the
concentration of rhodopsin using a molar extinction coefficient of 42,000
(Shichi et al., 1969
).
Effect of PBN on inherited retinal degeneration. In each strain
(wild-type, P23H, and S334ter), rats were divided into three groups of 10 rats
each (90 rats total). The first group was given 0.25% PBN in drinking water,
the second group was given 0.25% PBN in drinking water plus three
intraperitoneal injections (800, 1400, and 2000) of PBN (100 mg/kg body
weight, in an aqueous solution of 25 mg/ml PBN), and the third group was given
only drinking water. The treatments were begun at P21 and continued until P49.
ERGs were recorded at P49, after which the animals were killed and retinas
taken for morphologic examination.
Light damage paradigm. Control ERGs were recorded on 8 wild-type,
20 S334ter, and 20 P23H rats (P38P41). At P45P52, rats from each
strain were divided into two subgroups that were dark-adapted overnight before
being exposed for 24 hr to constant illumination of 2700 lux intensity. One
subgroup was treated with PBN (aqueous solution, 50 mg/kg, i.p.) every 6 hr
over the 24 hr of light exposure, the first treatment starting 0.5 hr before
exposure (Ranchon et al.,
2001
). The other subgroup was not treated. No sham injections were
done, because they have been shown to have no effect (Ranchon et al.,
1999
,
2001
). After light exposure,
the animals were placed in the dark for 24 hr and ERGs were recorded the next
day (day 1). Thereafter, the animals returned to dim cyclic light until they
were killed 5 d later for morphometric analysis.
Statistical analysis. ANOVA was performed on the derived
parameters and ONL areas to determine the effects of treatments and/or light
exposure on the ERG values and the ONL areas. A significance level of
p = 0.05 was set. If ANOVA was significant, multiple comparisons were
performed to decide which pairs of mean values were different. Significant
differences across groups were assessed using the post hoc
Scheffé test with the significance level set at p = 0.05
(Scheffé, 1959
)
 |
Results
|
|---|
Effect of PBN on inherited retinal degeneration
Animals were untreated or treated with 0.25% PBN in drinking water with or
without PBN injections from P21 to P49, at which time retinal structure and
function were evaluated. In the untreated groups, retinal function was reduced
in the P23H and S334ter rats compared with that of wild-type rats
(Fig. 1A). The maximal
b-wave amplitude (Bmax) was reduced significantly to 54%
in P23H animals and 51% in S334ter animals (p < 0.0001), with no
significant difference found between the two transgenic lines. PBN treatment
did not alter the b-wave amplitudes in wild-type rats
(Fig. 1B). PBN
treatment also had no significant protective effect on retinal function in the
mutant rhodopsin transgenic rats (Fig.
1C,D), indicating that the drug did not protect their
retinal photoreceptors from degeneration.
Measurement of ONL areas in untreated wild-type, P23H, and S334ter rat
retinas showed a significant reduction in P23H (16%) and S334ter (31%)
compared with wild type (p < 0.008 and p < 0.00001,
respectively), with photoreceptor loss in both superior and inferior
hemispheres (Fig. 2A).
There was no significant effect of PBN treatment on ONL area in any of the
test groups (Fig.
2BD).
Light damage susceptibility
Because PBN had no protective effect on the photoreceptor degeneration
because of the genetic mutations, we tested whether it could provide
protection against light damage in the mutant animals. Wild-type, P23H, and
S334ter rats were divided into two subgroups: one group was not treated, and
the other was given five intraperitoneal injections of aqueous PBN (50 mg/kg
per injection, the first given 0.5 hr before light exposure)
(Ranchon et al., 2001
). Both
subgroups were exposed to continuous illumination (2700 lux) for 24 hr.
Retinal function was determined by ERG analysis before and 1 d after light
treatment. In wild-type (Fig.
3A,B) and P23H (Fig.
3C,D) untreated rats, 24 hr of light exposure resulted in
complete loss of the a-wave and b-wave responses of the ERG. However, in the
untreated S334ter animals (Fig.
3E,F), retinal function was only partially reduced by the
same light treatment [Amax was 20 ± 14% (p
< 0.0001) and Bmax was 40 ± 14% (p <
0.0001) compared with their respective values before exposure to the damaging
light]. Treatment with PBN had a significant effect on the preservation of
function in the wild-type and P23H rats. Amax and
Bmax values were preserved (p < 0.00001) to
some extent in wild-type (42 ± 9 and 62 ± 16%, respectively) and
P23H (16 ± 9 and 49 ± 19%, respectively) animals. However, PBN
treatment was without effect in the S334ter rats; Amax and
Bmax values were 29 ± 15 and 55 ± 16%,
respectively, which although slightly higher than the values for untreated
animals, were not significantly different.

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Figure 3. a-wave (A, C, and E) and b-wave (B, D, and
F) sensitivity curves at P38P41. The a-wave and b-wave
amplitudes (in microvolts) are plotted as a function of the stimulus intensity
[log neutral density (ND) filter] before (open symbols) and after (filled
symbols) damaging light. Rats were untreated (squares) or treated with PBN
(diamonds). LD, Light damage.
|
|
Exposure of untreated rats to 2700 lux of continuous illumination caused
loss of photoreceptor cells in all three groups, with wild-type
(Fig. 4A) and P23H
(Fig. 4B) animals
being more affected than S334ter animals
(Fig. 4C). Values for
the 7-week-old control animals used in the first study
(Fig. 2) are presented here for
comparison. In wild-type rats, light stress induced a significant reduction of
the ONL area to 3.6% of unexposed wild-type retinas in the superior
hemispheres and to 14% of unexposed wild-type retinas in the inferior
hemispheres (Fig. 4A).
In P23H and S334ter animals, the ONL thickness was affected to the same extent
in superior and inferior hemispheres of the retina, and the integrated area
was reduced to 10% of unexposed wild-type in P23H rats
(Fig. 3B) and to 40%
of unexposed wild-type in S334ter rats
(Fig. 3C).

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Figure 4. ONL thickness after exposure to damaging light. A, Wild type;
B, P23H; C, S334ter. Control values (filled circle; data
from Fig. 2) before light
damage are shown. Rats were either untreated (open triangles) or treated with
five intraperitoneal injections of PBN (50 mg/kg per injection, filled
triangles, as described in Materials and Methods).
|
|
In PBN-treated groups, the ONL area of wild-type
(Fig. 4A) and P23H
(Fig. 4B) rat retinas
was significantly preserved to 54% (wild type) (p < 0.00001) and
50% (P23H) (p < 0.00001), respectively, in the superior retina and
to 92% (wild type) (p < 0.03) and 72% (P23H) (p <
0.004), respectively, in the inferior retina of comparable hemispheres in
unexposed rats. In the S334ter rats, the ONL area
(Fig. 4C) was
significantly preserved to 74% (p < 0.005) in the inferior retina
by PBN treatment, but not in the superior hemisphere.
Comparison of rhodopsin content and ONL area in wild-type, P23H, and
S334ter rats
Before exposure to the damaging light, the status of the retinas in each
strain was determined in P30 animals. The ONL area was significantly reduced
to 85% of wild-type controls in P23H (p < 0.014) and to 70% of
wild-type in S334ter (p < 0.0001) retinas
(Table 1), and there was a
significant difference (p < 0.01) between P23H and S334ter
retinas. The rhodopsin content was reduced to 61% in P23H (p <
0.0001) and 36% in S334ter (p < 0.00001) retinas
(Table 1). Retinal function was
reduced in the two transgenic strains; Amax was 55
± 11% in the P23H (p < 0.002) and 36 ± 5% in the
S334ter (p < 0.0001) rats, compared with that in wild-type rats.
Amax was also significantly different between P23H and
S334ter rats (p < 0.005). Bmax was
significantly (p < 0.0001) reduced to 55 ± 4% in P23H rats
and to 54 ± 5% in S334ter rats compared with the wild-type (1620
± 155 µV) rats (Table
1). Bmax was not significantly different
between S334ter and P23H rats.
 |
Discussion
|
|---|
Light damage to photoreceptors is triggered by the excessive absorption of
photons by the visual pigment rhodopsin
(Grimm et al., 2000
), and the
vulnerability of these cells is positively correlated to the rhodopsin content
(Noell et al., 1966
;
Noell and Albrecht, 1971
;
Remé et al., 1998
). In
this study, we found that the critical determinant for light-damage
sensitivity is not solely the rhodopsin content, because P23H rats had a lower
retinal rhodopsin content than the wild-type rats, yet they were as
susceptible to light damage as the wild types. This is consistent with the
finding by Wenzel et al.
(2001a
) that dark-adapted
rhodopsin level does not necessarily correlate with photons caught in the
light, and that the steady-state bleach level and the regeneration rate are
also important determinants.
The S334ter rats were relatively more resistant to light damage than the
P23H rats. The resistance to light damage may be attributable in part to the
significantly lower levels of rhodopsin compared with the levels seen in P23H
rats, but other factors may be involved. For example, at least some of the
rhodopsin is mis-sorted in S334ter photoreceptors
(Green et al., 2000
). At
present, however, we do not know whether other factors in photon capture or
rhodopsin regeneration (Wenzel et al.,
2001a
) or other genetic factors
(Danciger et al., 2000
;
Hao et al., 2002
) that
influence the susceptibility to light damage are different in the two mutant
lines. Thus, the exact cause of the reduced susceptibility of S334ter rats to
light damage remains to be determined.
In this study, we found that acute administration of PBN protects wild-type
and P23H but not S334ter rat retinas from the damaging effect of light. This
suggests that the protection by PBN is dependent on the normal
activationdeactivation of the rhodopsin molecule. In wild-type and P23H
rats, PBN protection might involve mechanisms other than free radical
scavenging, such as a downregulation of the rhodopsin regeneration rate or
effects on cellular metabolism. PBN has also been shown to reduce basal
protein phosphorylation in primary rat glia
(Robinson et al., 1999
), and
phosphorylation is a major step in rhodopsin regeneration
(Bennett and Sitaramayya, 1988
;
McDowell et al., 2001
). This
may explain why PBN was less effective in the S334ter rats, because
S334ter-rhodopsin is missing the phosphorylation sites required for the
inactivation process.
Because PBN protected wild-type and P23H rat retinas from light damage but
did not protect P23H (or S334ter) from inherited degeneration, the underlying
mechanisms that cause these two types of degeneration and the action of PBN on
them must be different. Although relatively little is known about the
molecular and cellular mechanisms of the inherited retinal degenerations
compared with those of light damage, a few points can be suggested from the
present findings. First, apoptosis is known to be the "final cell death
pathway" in both light-induced and hereditary retinal degenerations. The
fact that PBN protects against light-induced but not against P23H-induced or
S334ter-induced degeneration suggests that PBN does not interact directly with
the apoptotic pathway or that the apoptotic pathway in the mutation-induced
and light-induced degeneration are different. This latter possibility must be
considered until shown otherwise in view of the recent demonstration of two
apoptotic pathways in light-induced retinal degeneration
(Hao et al., 2002
).
The second point that can be made from the present data on differential
effects of PBN on inherited and light-induced degenerations concerns the role
of free radicals in the degenerative process. Chronic administration of PBN
for 4 weeks did not protect against inherited retinal degeneration induced by
the expression of the P23H or S334ter mutant rhodopsin transgenes. Because PBN
was injected at
60 mg/day per rat and/or 0.25% PBN was present in the
drinking water, the lack of protection cannot be attributed to a too small
amount of the drug, but rather suggests that: (1) free radicals do not play an
early role in the hereditary degenerative process, (2) radicals are involved
too far down in the cascade of degenerative events for the cells to be
rescued, or (3) other cellular pathways affected by PBN are not involved in
inherited retinal degenerations.
The fact that S334ter rats are less susceptible to light damage than P23H
rats and are the least rescued by PBN and the fact that P23H rats are not
rescued to the same extent as wild type are consistent with PBN as a
protective agent against the primary events in light-induced cell death but
not on the mutation-induced pathways. PBN may act as an antioxidant/free
radical scavenger in the early stages of light damage. There is probably a
complex interaction between the secondary processes of light damage and
inherited degeneration. The effects of light on cells already stressed by
photoreceptor mutations probably differ according to the interactions of light
damage with the pathways of degeneration in each type of mutation. Although
these suggestions would explain our current findings, they remain to be shown
experimentally.
Recent studies provide some insight into the differences in the mechanisms
of cell death in light damage and inherited degenerations with molecules other
than PBN. Mice lacking the protooncogene c-fos were protected from
light damage (Hafezi et al.,
1997
), whereas the transcription factor AP-1 was increased during
bright-light stress (Hafezi et al.,
1999
). Suppression of AP-1 expression with steroids protected
retinas from light damage (Wenzel et al.,
2001b
). In retinal degeneration mutants, however, the absence of
c-fos resulted in no protective effect in rd/rd
(Hafezi et al., 1998
) and
rhodopsin knock-out mice (Hobson et al.,
2000
). Similarly, overexpression of the survival-promoting growth
factor FGF-2 reduces hyperoxia-induced photoreceptor cell death in mice but
does not reduce cell death in rd/rd or Q344ter mutant rhodopsin
transgenic mice (Yamada et al.,
2001
). These studies, along with our present findings, provide
substantial evidence that the mechanisms of cell death initiation in the
mutant mice are different from those in light damage, although apoptosis is
the ultimate cause of cell demise in each case.
Substantial effort in retinal degeneration research has focused on a
protective strategy to slow the rate of retinal degeneration. There exists a
significant genetic heterogeneity in RP phenotypes, even in patients with the
same gene mutation, and a large number of mutations exist in multiple retinal
genes leading to the common pathway of photoreceptor cell death. Specific gene
therapies, such as antisense or ribozymes
(Lewin et al., 1998
), may not
readily treat a significant fraction of patients. As a result, it is important
to develop a generalized survival factor therapy that does not target the
mutant gene product, but rather alters the photoreceptor or its environment in
a manner that promotes cell survival. The use of light damage and S334ter and
P23H rats in combination allows the design of therapies for animal models that
mimic human disorders, yet provides different degeneration and gene defects
with which to test such generalized therapies.
 |
Footnotes
|
|---|
Received Nov. 19, 2002;
revised Apr. 30, 2003;
accepted May. 1, 2003.
This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health
(EY00871, EY01919, EY02162, EY06842, EY04149, EY12190, and RR17703), Research
to Prevent Blindness (RPB), The Foundation Fighting Blindness, Oklahoma Center
for the Advancement of Science and TechnologyOklahoma Applied Research
Support, Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation, The IPSEN Foundation, and
Presbyterian Health Foundation. M.M.L. is an RPB senior scientist
investigator. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Mark Dittmar in the
breeding and husbandry of the animals and in the ERG measurements.
Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Isabelle Ranchon, Laboratoire de
Biophysiques Sensorielles, Facultés de Médecine et de Pharmacie,
28 Place Henri Dunant, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France. E-mail:
isabelle.ranchon{at}uclermont1.fr.
Copyright © 2003 Society for Neuroscience
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