Zebrafish May Hold the Answer to Repairing Damaged Retinas and Returning Eyesight to People
Researchers at the University of Albany have discovered that the Zebrafish has stem cells that can repair and replace damaged cones in the retina. This is important because in humans, the cones are responsible for daytime and color vision, while rods are for night vision. In the past, only rods have been successfully regenerated in animal studies. Humans do not have stem cells that replace the rods and cones, so vision damage is not repairable in most cases. This new research gives hope to successful stem cell therapy on human rods/cones in the future. The scientists next step is to locate the specific gene responsible for the repairing of the damaged cells.
Nature of Science Themes
- Science is based on evidence
- Science is experimental
- Science is collaborative
Annika Page
Hour 3
I think that this is a very interesting topic because millions of people have bad vision and wish it could be corrected permently. I found that Zebrafish have also been studied in fin and heart regeneration. There are two genes, hspd1 and mps1, that have been found in both of these studies. This gives lead to further research on regeneration of body parts and repairing the damaged cells in eyes.
ReplyDeleteHere is another article i found on Zebrafish and regeneration of cells-
http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/zebrafish-do-it-why-cant-we/