Sphingolipid profile alters in retinal dystrophic P23H-1 rats and systemic FTY720 can delay retinal degeneration.

ABSTRACT: Retinal degeneration (RD) affects millions of people and is a major cause of ocular impairment and blindness. With a wide range of mutations and conditions leading to degeneration, targeting downstream processes is necessary for developing effective treatments. Ceramide and sphingosine-1-phosphate, a pair of bioactive sphingolipids, are involved in apoptosis and its prevention, respectively. Apoptotic cell death is a potential driver of RD, and in order to understand the mechanism of degeneration and potential treatments, we studied rhodopsin mutant RD model, P23H-1 rats. Investigating this genetic model of human RD allows us to investigate the association of sphingolipid metabolites with the degeneration of the retina in P23H-1 rats and the effects of a specific modulator of sphingolipid

SUBMITTER: Stiles M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4847629 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature