gms | German Medical Science

102. Jahrestagung der DOG

Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft e. V.

23. bis 26.09.2004, Berlin

Article

Send article

Neuroprotection of cones in rod-cone dystrophies (Identification and Characterization of Rod-derived Cone Viability Factor)

Meeting Abstract

Search Medline for

  • corresponding author T. Léveillard - Laboratoire de Physiopathologie Cellulaire et Moléculaire et de la Rétine, Inserm U592, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Hôpital St-Antoine, Paris, France
  • J.-A. Sahel - Laboratoire de Physiopathologie Cellulaire et Moléculaire et de la Rétine, Inserm U592, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Hôpital St-Antoine, Paris, France

Evidenzbasierte Medizin - Anspruch und Wirklichkeit. 102. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Ophthalmologischen Gesellschaft. Berlin, 23.-26.09.2004. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2004. Doc04dogSA.11.05

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dog2004/04dog376.shtml

Published: September 22, 2004

© 2004 Léveillard et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

Text

Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) is an untreatable inherited retinal disease leading to blindness. The disease initiates with the loss of night vision due to rod photoreceptor degeneration, followed by irreversible progressive loss of cone photoreceptors death. Cone loss is responsible for the major visual handicap as cones are essential for day and high acuity vision. Their loss is indirect since most RP genes are not expressed by these cells. We have previously shown that factors secreted from rods are an essential requirement for cone viability. We now have identified one such trophic factor by expression cloning and named it rod-derived cone viability factor (RdCVF). RdCVF is a novel truncated thioredoxin-like protein (Txnl6) specifically expressed by photoreceptors. The identification of this protein offers new therapeutical possibilities for RP.