Progression of Retinal Disease Linked to Cell Starvation

A new study illuminates an incurable eye disease that afflicts approximately 100,000 Americans. Your retina contains two types of cells that send signals when they detect light--rods and cones. In patients with Retinitis Pigmentosa, first the rods, then the cones, die, leading to blindness. While most cases of the disease are due to mutations in rod-specific genes, cones don't escape death. New data suggest that the cones die because they are starving.

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