[Nfbf-l] FW: Research Carried Out In Mice WillContribute To The Study Of Hereditary Diseases That Lead ToBlindness

[elizabeth McNally]

This article is a little long and not totally blindness related but thought
that there may some interested in it. Sorry if I have overstepped the rules.

Research Carried Out In Mice Will Contribute To The Study Of Hereditary
Diseases That Lead To Blindness Article Date: 10 Jul 2009 - 0:00 PDT
Researchers of the University of Granada (Spain) have used a technique
consisting of the induction of neuronal degeneration neuronal for intense
light exposure in the mouse's retina that will be helpful for the study of
retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a group of hereditary diseases which lead to
blindness and affect more than one million persons a year all over the
world. In addition, the results of this research work could be very useful
for the detection of new factors or molecules originated by microglial cells
and related to degenerative processes of the retina.
The doctoral thesis of Ana María Santos Carro, researcher of the Department
of Cell Biology of the University of Granada, is based on the study of
microglial cells, a type of cell of the Nervous System that develop a
phagocytic or purifying role against damages or infections in such system.
Her work has analysed the distribution of microglial cells in la retina of
the mouse during all its development, both embryonic and postnatal and
adult, and has studied the response of these cells to a neurodegenerative
process induced in the retina by intense light exposure.
Parkinson's and Alzheimer's
The researcher of the UGR insists that "it is important to get to know the
response of the microglial cells against neurodegenerative, because such
cells are practically involved in all the diseases and damages of the
nervous system, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and knowing their
behaviour in pathologic situations could be helpful in the design of
therapeutic strategies".
Microglial cells are the resident population of macrophages in the central
nervous system (CNS) and play a relevant role in the immune defence. The
research group of the UGR "Embryology of the Nervous System" has been
studying for years the origin, distribution and migratory characteristics of
these cells, both in situations of normal development of the healthy CNS and
in response to damages or injuries using as a model of study the retina of
birds and mammals.
Notes:
The doctoral thesis of Ana María Santos Carro has been supervised by
Professors Miguel Ángel Cuadros Ojeda, Julio Navascués Martínez and José
Luis Marín-Teva.
Part of the results of this research work has been recently published in the
specialized Journal of Comparative Neurology.
 Likewise, some of the results obtained have been presented in oral
communications and posters in different national and international
scientific meetings: 
VIII European
Meeting on Glial Cell Functions in Health and Disease (Londres), VII
European Meeting on Glial Cell Functions in Health and Disease (Amsterdam),
IV Meeting of the Spanish Glial Network (Madrid), etc.
Source:
Ana María Santos Carro
University of Granada
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