New research on the eyes of zebrafish from Vanderbilt University may hold the key to one day allowing human retinas to regenerate and natural repair damage caused by degenerative retinal diseases and injury, including age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.
According to researchers, they have been able to identify a signal that appears to trigger the self-repair process in zebrafish, causing retinal regeneration. They found in fish retinas, a drop in the concentration of the fast-acting neurotrasmitter GABA causes the adult stem cell Müller glia to activate, launching the regeneration process.
Based on their findings, scientists believe it may be possible to stimulate human retinas to repair themselves by treating them with a GABA inhibitor.
This research was reportedly funded by grants from the National Eye Institute (NEI).
The study was recently published in the journal Stem Cell Reports.
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Source: Vanderbilt University