Progression Of Retinal Disease Linked To Cell Starvation
Tuesday, December 9, 2008 - 09:15
in Health & Medicine
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.