Photosensors in Retina Revived After Death
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Researchers revived light signaling in human donor eyes that were removed from the body up to five hours after death, and could restore synaptic transmission within the first hour. The findings show promise for studying the physiology of human vision and to test drugs, retinal patch transplants and other strategies to treat retinal ailments.
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@vikrant As reported in Nature, Dr. Hanneken and colleagues first confirmed the swift decline of neuronal retinal function in mice, using a method called electroretinography to track the decline in the minutes after death. They then found that if they removed the mouse eyes after death, and restored oxygen and a normal pH balance within three hours, the retinas revived, showing light-responsive electrical activity in the macular photoreceptors, and evidence of photoreceptor signaling to bipolar and retinal ganglion cells, which constitute the next stage of visual signal processing.