08 July 2025
New research published in Current Biology has outlined how retinal cells are capable of rewiring to adapt to a deterioration in vision that results from retinitis pigmentosa.
Scientists from the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA conducted observations of mice with a model of early retinitis pigmentosa.
They made electrical recordings from individual rod bipolar cells to see how these cells behaved when their usual input from rod photoreceptors is lost.
They found that the rod bipolar cells were able to form new functional connections with cones that provide daytime vision when their usual partners were lost.
The authors highlighted that the signal for rewiring seems to result from the process of degeneration itself.
Professor Alapakkam Sampath, of the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute, highlighted that the findings show the retina can adapt to the loss of rods in ways that attempt to preserve daytime light sensitivity.
"When the usual connections between rod bipolar cells and rods are lost, these cells can rewire themselves to receive signals from cones instead. The signal for this plasticity appears to be degeneration itself, perhaps through the role of glial support cells or factors released by dying cells,” he said.
In the future, the researchers hope to investigate whether this rewiring of cells represents a general mechanism used by the retina when rods die.
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