Publication Date

Summer 8-4-2022

Project Category

Health Research

Faculty Mentor

Nawajes Mandal, PhD

Document Type

Paper

Abstract

Light-induced retinal degeneration (LIRD) causes photoreceptor cell death in albino mice after exposure to high intensity light for a set period of time (6-24 hours). This causes retinal photoreceptor cell death through apoptosis. From several previous studies, Dr. Mandal’s lab concluded that de novo biosynthesis of ceramide mediates photoreceptor cell death in a LIRD model. Previous studies in Dr. Mandal’s lab has shown that mouse models with higher endogenous ω-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (n-3 PUFA) generates less ceramide upon neuronal injury and prevent neurodegeneration (Mol Neurobio 2021). There are currently not many available effective therapies for retinal degeneration in humans that have inherited diseases leading to blindness. We speculate that higher endogenous n-3 PUFA will prevent retinal degeneration in mouse model of light induced retinal degeneration.

This project aimed to see a significant difference between LD-Control vs LD-PUFA. Results showed that there was a significant difference between NLD-Control vs LD-Control and NLD-PUFA vs LD-PUFA. Similar levels of degeneration of retinal photoreceptors occurred in n-3 PUFA and control. n-3 PUFA has shown inconclusive results for decreasing photoreceptor cell death. Further testing should be done to confirm the significance of the effect of n-3 PUFA in a mouse-model.

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