The Retinal Homeobox (Rx) gene is necessary for retinal regeneration |
| |
| Authors: | Martinez-De Luna Reyna I Kelly Lisa E El-Hodiri Heithem M |
| |
| Institution: | aGraduate Program in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, College of Biological Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA;bCenter for Molecular and Human Genetics, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA;cDepartment of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA |
| |
| Abstract: | The Retinal Homeobox (Rx) gene is essential for vertebrate eye development. Rx function is required for the specification and maintenance of retinal progenitor cells (RPCs). Loss of Rx function leads to a lack of eye development in a variety of species. Here we show that Rx function is also necessary during retinal regeneration. We performed a thorough characterization of retinal regeneration after partial retinal resection in pre-metamorphic Xenopus laevis. We show that after injury the wound is repopulated with retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) that express Rx and other RPC marker genes. We used an shRNA-based approach to specifically silence Rx expression in vivo in tadpoles. We found that loss of Rx function results in impaired retinal regeneration, including defects in the cells that repopulate the wound and the RPE at the wound site. We show that the regeneration defects can be rescued by provision of exogenous Rx. These results demonstrate for the first time that Rx, in addition to being essential during retinal development, also functions during retinal regeneration. |
| |
| Keywords: | Retinal Homeobox Regeneration Transdifferentiation Retinal progenitor cells shRNA |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect PubMed 等数据库收录！ |
|
