Abstract
The induction of retinal degeneration by light exposure is widely used to study mechanisms of cell death. The advantage of such light-induced lesions over genetically determined degenerations is that light exposures can be manipulated according to the needs of the experimenter. Bright white light exposure can induce a synchronized burst of apoptosis in photoreceptors in a large retinal area which permits to study cellular and molecular events in a controlled fashion. Blue light of high energy induces a hot spot of high retinal irradiance within very short exposure durations (seconds to minutes) and may help to unravel the initial events after light absorption which may be similar for all damage regimens. These initial events may then induce various molecular signaling pathways and secondary effects such as lipid and protein oxidation, which may be varying in different light damage setups and different strains or species, respectively. Blue light lesions also allow to study cellular responses in a circumscribed retinal area (hot spot) in comparison with the surrounding tissue.
Here we describe the methods for short-term exposures (within the hours range) to bright full-spectrum white light and for short exposures (seconds to minutes) to high-energy monochromatic blue or green light.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the late Theodore P. Williams for numerous stimulating discussions, helping with setting up the light damage systems, analyzing data, and providing crucial insights into the function and metabolism of rhodopsin.
We also cordially thank François Delori and Ed Pugh Jr. for contributing to the blue light damage setup by calculating retinal irradiance, photon flux, and rate of rhodopsin isomerizations.
The late Pascal Rol helped to build the first blue light setup, which was later refined by Michael Mrochen and Thomas Menzi.
Discussions with and ideas from all past and present members of the Lab for Retinal Cell Biology helped to improve the light exposure systems. Without their input and experiments, many of the potential pitfalls would not have been recognized and eliminated.
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Grimm, C., Remé, C.E. (2019). Light Damage Models of Retinal Degeneration. In: Weber, B.H.F., Langmann, T. (eds) Retinal Degeneration. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1834. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8669-9_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8669-9_12
Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
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