Influence of eye pigmentation on retinal degeneration in P23H and S334ter mutant rhodopsin transgenic rats.

Dark-rearing has been found to slow the rate of retinal degeneration in albino P23H but not S334ter mutant rhodopsin transgenic (Tg) rats. Since eye pigmentation has the same protective slowing effect as dark-rearing in RCS rats, we examined whether eye pigmentation has a comparable slowing effect in the different mutant rhodopsin Tg rats. Different lines of albino P23H and S334ter Tg rats on the Sprague-Dawley (SD) background were bred to Long-Evans (LE) rats to produce pigmented Tg rats.

Correction to: Retinal Degenerative Diseases.

The title of the chapter is "Melatonin as the Possible Link Between Age-Related Retinal Degeneration and the Disrupted Circadian Rhythm in Elderly" but degeneration was incorrectly published as regeneration. Now this has been corrected to degeneration.

Phenotypic characterization of P23H and S334ter rhodopsin transgenic rat models of inherited retinal degeneration.

We produced 8 lines of transgenic (Tg) rats expressing one of two different rhodopsin mutations in albino Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Three lines were generated with a proline to histidine substitution at codon 23 (P23H), the most common autosomal dominant form of retinitis pigmentosa in the United States. Five lines were generated with a termination codon at position 334 (S334ter), resulting in a C-terminal truncated opsin protein lacking the last 15 amino acid residues and containing all of the phosphorylation sites involved in rhodopsin deactivation, as well as the terminal QVAPA residues important for rhodopsin deactivation and trafficking.