1. Taurine deficiency damages photoreceptors and retinal ganglion cells in vigabatrin-treated neonatal rats
- Author
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Cheryl M. Craft, José Sahel, Romain Caplette, Manuel Simonutti, Julie Degardin, Elisabeth Dubus, Stéphane Fouquet, Firas Jammoul, Serge Picaud, Pauline Gondouin, and Dorothée Pain
- Subjects
Retinal Ganglion Cells ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Taurine ,genetic structures ,Fluorescent Antibody Technique ,Cell Count ,Biology ,Retinal ganglion ,Article ,Vigabatrin ,Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Internal medicine ,Electroretinography ,medicine ,Animals ,Photoreceptor Cells ,Rats, Wistar ,Molecular Biology ,Analysis of Variance ,Retina ,Cell Death ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,Retinal ,Cell Biology ,Anatomy ,Rats ,Optic Atrophy ,Neuroprotective Agents ,Endocrinology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Animals, Newborn ,Gliosis ,chemistry ,Retinal ganglion cell ,Anticonvulsants ,sense organs ,medicine.symptom ,medicine.drug - Abstract
The anti-epileptic drug vigabatrin induces an irreversible constriction of the visual field, but is still widely used to treat infantile spasms and some forms of epilepsy. We recently reported that vigabatrin-induced cone damage is due to a taurine deficiency. However, optic atrophy and thus retinal ganglion cell degeneration was also reported in children treated for infantile spasms. We here show in neonatal rats treated from postnatal days 4 to 29 that the vigabatrin treatment triggers not only cone photoreceptor damage, disorganisation of the photoreceptor layer and gliosis but also retinal ganglion cell loss. Furthermore, we demonstrate in these neonatal rats that taurine supplementation partially prevents these retinal lesions and in particular the retinal ganglion cell loss. These results provide the first evidence of retinal ganglion cell neuroprotection by taurine. They further confirm that taurine supplementation should be administered with the vigabatrin treatment for infantile spasms or epilepsy.
- Published
- 2010
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