PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Alexander Sher
AU  - Bryan W. Jones
AU  - Philip Huie
AU  - Yannis M. Paulus
AU  - Daniel Lavinsky
AU  - Loh-Shan S. Leung
AU  - Hiroyuki Nomoto
AU  - Corinne Beier
AU  - Robert E. Marc
AU  - Daniel Palanker
TI  - Restoration of Retinal Structure and Function after Selective Photocoagulation
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1044-12.2013
DP  - 2013 Apr 17
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 6800--6808
VI  - 33
IP  - 16
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/16/6800.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/16/6800.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2013 Apr 17; 33
AB  - CNS neurons change their connectivity to accommodate a changing environment, form memories, or respond to injury. Plasticity in the adult mammalian retina after injury or disease was thought to be limited to restructuring resulting in abnormal retinal anatomy and function. Here we report that neurons in the mammalian retina change their connectivity and restore normal retinal anatomy and function after injury. Patches of photoreceptors in the rabbit retina were destroyed by selective laser photocoagulation, leaving retinal inner neurons (bipolar, amacrine, horizontal, ganglion cells) intact. Photoreceptors located outside of the damaged zone migrated to make new functional connections with deafferented bipolar cells located inside the lesion. The new connections restored ON and OFF responses in deafferented ganglion cells. This finding extends the previously perceived limits of restorative plasticity in the adult retina and allows for new approaches to retinal laser therapy free of current detrimental side effects such as scotomata and scarring.