Classical complement activation and acquired immune response pathways are not essential for retinal degeneration in the rd1 mouse.

ABSTRACT: Misregulation of the innate immune response and other immune-related processes have been suggested to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of a number of different neurodegenerative diseases, including age related macular degeneration. In an animal model for photoreceptor degeneration, several genes of the innate and acquired immune system were found to be differentially regulated in the retina during the degenerative process. In addition to this differential regulation of individual genes, we found that in the rd1 retina a significantly higher number of genes involved in immune-related responses were expressed at any given time during the degenerative period. The peak of immune-related gene expression was at postnatal day 14, coinciding with the peak of photoreceptor apoptosis in the

SUBMITTER: Rohrer B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1885545 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature