Ophthalmology

Loss of fruit fly retina protein delays blinding light damage

Published in Health and Medicine Week, January 3rd, 2005

In experiments with fruit flies, Johns Hopkins researchers have found that blindness induced by constant light results directly from the loss of a key light-detecting protein, rather than from the overall death of cells in the retina, which in humans is a light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye.

The research, reported in Current Biology, overturns the long-standing belief that blindness from chronic light exposure is a direct result of overall retinal degeneration and cell death.

Although many animals, and presumably humans, lose both their retinal cells and vision after exposure to low levels of light for long periods, the relationship...

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Source: Health and Medicine Week (2005-01-03)

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