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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Effects in Retinal Cell Gene Expression and Development
Author(s) -
Rodriguez Joseph A.,
Muralidharan Pooja A.,
Marrs James A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.lb33
Subject(s) - zebrafish , biology , wnt signaling pathway , retinal , retina , microbiology and biotechnology , embryonic stem cell , gene expression , genetics , gene , signal transduction , neuroscience , biochemistry
Alcohol exposure during embryonic development has many adverse effects on development, and this is termed fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Retinal development is consistently affected by ethanol exposure in animal models, and vision is frequently impaired in human patients. The zebrafish is an excellent model to study FASD due to their experimental accessibility and similar developmental pathways to humans. Previous studies show that ethanol exposure caused retinal cell differentiation defects leading to retinal defects, including photoreceptor defects. These defects persist in to juvenile stages, suggesting that the retinal stem cells are permanently altered. This research aims to understand gene expression changes that occur in retinal cells in the retina, and particularly the ciliary marginal zone (CMZ) stem cell compartment due to ethanolexposure. Zebrafish embryos exposed to ethanol [100, 150 mM EtOH], from 2–24 hours postfertilization (hpf), were grown in regular medium until 72 hpf. Eyes from ethanol treated and control zebrafish embryos were dissected and total RNA was isolated.. The RNA is then purified and then reverse transcribed into cDNA. Quantitative PCR was then used to analyze the cDNA using gene specific primers to determine relative expression levels of various genes present in the retinal developmental pathway. Experiments examined specific signaling pathways including, wnt, notch and proneural gene targets, and other specific markers expressed by retinal precursor cell and differentiating cell populations. This research will provide insight into gene expression changes affecting retinal development in specific cell types after alcohol exposure. Our goal is to understand the genesis of FASD birth defects caused by ethanol exposure, and this research will possibly identify ethanol toxicity targets and therapeutic strategies to prevent or reverse the damage. Support or Funding Information Research was supported by NIAAA.