| Description |
Retinitis Pigmentosa is rare inherited retinal disease that causes progressive blindness as an affected individual ages. Blindness is a significant public health issue, and visual impairment, especially when varying over the lifespan, can have immense impact on community health. For my honors thesis, I will do a review of prior literature on the impact of genetic blinding diseases on community health. Furthermore, I have studied retinal plasticity in retinitis pigmentosa (RP) using a mouse model of RP caused by P23H mutation in the gene encoding for the rod photoreceptor visual pigment molecule. Unexpectedly, my experiments demonstrated that highly sensitive night vision is maintained despite a significant rod photoreceptor deterioration in the P23H mice. Both behavioral and in vivo electrophysiology experiments showed some degree of vision loss, but not as substantial as one would expect based on photoreceptor damage in the disease. These results imply that although vision loss through retinitis pigmentosa is a public health problem, its progression may be delayed through homeostatic neuroplasticity mechanisms. |
