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Ribozyme-directed cleavage of mutant mRNAs appears to be a potentially effective therapeutic measure for dominantly inherited diseases. We previously demonstrated that two ribozymes targeted to the P23H mutation in rhodopsin slow photoreceptor degeneration in transgenic rats for up to 3 months of age when injected before significant degeneration at postnatal day (P) 15. We now have explored whether ribozyme rescue persists at older ages, and whether ribozymes are effective when injected later in the degeneration after significant photoreceptor cell loss. Recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors incorporating a proximal bovine rod opsin promoter were used to transfer either hairpin or hammerhead ribozyme genes to photoreceptors. For the study of long-term survival, rAAV was administered by subretinal injection at P15, and the rats were allowed to live up to 8 months of age. For the study of late-stage gene transfer, rAAV was administered at P30 or P45, when 40-45% of the photoreceptors already had degenerated. Eyes were examined functionally by the electroretinogram and structurally by morphometric analysis. When injected at P15, expression of either ribozyme markedly slowed the rate of photoreceptor degeneration for at least 8 months and resulted in significantly greater electroretinogram amplitudes at least up to P180. When injected at P30 or P45, virtually the same number of photoreceptors survived at P130 as when injected at P15. Ribozyme rescue appears to be a potentially effective, long-term therapy for autosomal dominant retinal degeneration and is highly effective even when the gene transfer is done after significant photoreceptor cell loss.

C57BL/6J-c(2J) (c2J) albino mice showed much less damage to their photoreceptors after exposure to prolonged light than BALB/c mice and seven other albino strains tested. There were no gender differences, and preliminary studies suggested that the c2J relative protective effect was a complex trait. A genome-wide scan using dinucleotide repeat markers was carried out for the analysis of 194 progeny of the backcross (c2J x BALB/c)F(1) x c2J and the thickness of the outer nuclear layer (ONL) of the retina was the quantitative trait reflecting retinal damage. Our results revealed a strong and highly significant quantitative trait locus (QTL) on mouse Chromosome (Chr) 3 that contributes almost 50% of the c2J protective effect, and three other very weak but significant QTLs on Chrs 9, 12, and 14. Interestingly, the Chrs 9 and 12 QTLs corresponded to relative susceptibility alleles in c2J (or relative protection alleles in BALB/c), the opposite of the relative protective effect of the QTLs on Chrs 3 and 14. We mapped the Rpe65 gene to the apex of the Chr 3 QTL (LOD score = 19.3). Northern analysis showed no difference in retinal expression of Rpe65 message between c2J and BALB/c mice. However, sequencing of the Rpe65 message revealed a single base change in codon 450, predicting a methionine in c2J and a leucine in BALB/c. When the retinas of aging BALB/c and c2J mice reared in normal cyclic light were compared, the BALB/c retinas showed a small but significant loss of photoreceptor cells, while the c2J retinas did not. Finding light damage-modifying genes in the mouse may open avenues of study for understanding age-related macular degeneration and other retinal degenerations, since light exposures may contribute to the course of these diseases.

Purpose: To examine the protective effect of a number of survival factors on degenerating photoreceptors in mutant mice with naturally occurring inherited retinal degenerations, including retinal degeneration (rd/rd), retinal degeneration slow (rds/rds), nervous (nr/nr), and Purkinje cell degeneration (pcd/pcd), in three different forms of mutant rhodopsin transgenic mice and in light damage in albino mice., Methods: Various survival factors were injected intravitreally into one eye of mice at or soon after the beginning of photoreceptor degeneration, with the opposite eye serving as the control, and the eyes were examined histologically at later ages. The survival factors included brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3, neurotrophin-4, ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), Axokine (a mutein of CNTF), leukemia inhibitory factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, and nerve growth factor and insulin-like growth factor II, either alone or in various combinations., Results: Photoreceptor degeneration was slowed in rd/rd and nr/nr mutant mice and in Q344ter mutant rhodopsin mice by certain forms of CNTF; the degeneration in Q344ter mice was slowed by Axokine and by leukemia inhibitory factor; and the degeneration in a few nr/nr mice was slowed by BDNF. The other agents were ineffective in these mice, and none of the agents were effective in the other mutants and other mutant rhodopsin transgenic mice. However, light damage experiments that compared agent effectiveness in albino mice versus rats suggested a significant delivery problem with the very small mouse eye, thereby making the interpretation of negative findings equivocal in mutant mice. Basic fibroblast growth factor failed to protect the mouse retina from the damaging effects of constant light, whereas it showed a strong protective effect in the rat, indicating an important species difference., Conclusions: The slowing of degeneration in the rd/rd and Q344ter mutant mice demonstrated that intraocularly injected survival factors can protect photoreceptors from degenerating in animal models with the same or similar genetic defects as those in human inherited retinal degenerations.

Recent demonstrations of survival-promoting activity by neurotrophic agents in diverse neuronal systems have raised the possibility of pharmacological therapy for inherited and degenerative disorders of the central nervous system. We have shown previously that, in the retina, basic fibroblast growth factor delays photoreceptor degeneration in Royal College of Surgeons rats with inherited retinal dystrophy and that the growth factor reduces or prevents the rapid photoreceptor degeneration produced by constant light in the rat. This light-damage model now provides an efficient way to assess quantitatively the survival-promoting activity in vivo of a number of growth factors and other molecules. We report here that photoreceptors can be significantly protected from the damaging effects of light by intravitreal injection of eight different growth factors, cytokines, and neurotrophins that typically act through several distinct receptor families. In addition to basic fibroblast growth factor, those factors providing a high degree of photoreceptor rescue include brain-derived neurotrophic factor, ciliary neurotrophic factor, interleukin 1 beta, and acidic fibroblast growth factor; those with less activity include neurotrophin 3, insulin-like growth factor II, and tumor necrosis factor alpha; those showing little or no protective effect are nerve growth factor, epidermal growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, insulin, insulin-like growth factor I, heparin, and laminin. Although we used at least one relatively high concentration of each agent (the highest available), it is still possible that other concentrations or factor combinations might be more protective. Injecting heparin along with acidic fibroblast growth factor or basic fibroblast growth factor further enhanced the degree of photoreceptor survival and also suppressed the increased incidence of macrophages produced by either factor, especially basic fibroblast growth factor. These results now provide the impetus for determining the normal function in the retina, mechanism(s) of rescue, and therapeutic potential in human eye diseases for each agent.

Injection of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) into the eye, intravitreally or subretinally, delays photoreceptor degeneration in inherited retinal dystrophy in the rat, as does local injury to the retina (Faktorovich et al., 1990). To determine whether this heparin-binding peptide or local injury is effective in any other form of photoreceptor degeneration, we examined their protective roles in light damage. Albino rats of the F344 strain were exposed to 1 or 2 weeks of constant fluorescent light (115-200 footcandles), either with or without 1 microliter of bFGF solution (1150 ng/microliters in PBS) injected intravitreally or subretinally 2 d before the start of light exposure. Uninjected and intravitreally PBS-injected controls showed the loss of a majority of photoreceptor nuclei and the loss of most inner and outer segments after 1 week of light exposure, while intravitreal injection of bFGF resulted in significant photoreceptor rescue. The outer nuclear layer in bFGF-injected eyes was two to three times thicker than in controls, and the inner and outer segments showed a much greater degree of integrity. Following recovery in cyclic light for 10 d after 1 week of constant light exposure, bFGF-injected eyes showed much greater regeneration of photoreceptor inner and outer segments than did the controls. bFGF also increased the incidence of presumptive macrophages, located predominantly in the inner retina, but the evidence suggests they are not directly involved in photoreceptor rescue. Subretinal injection of bFGF resulted in photoreceptor rescue throughout most of the superior hemisphere in which the injection was made, with rescue extending into the inferior hemisphere in many of the eyes. Remarkably, the insertion of a dry needle or injection of PBS into the subretinal space also resulted in widespread photoreceptor rescue, extending through 70% or more of the superior hemisphere, and sometimes into the inferior hemispheres. This implicates the release and widespread diffusion of some endogenous survival-promoting factor from the site of injury in the retina. Our findings indicate that the photoreceptor rescue activity of bFGF is not restricted to inherited retinal dystrophy in the rat, and that light damage is an excellent model for studying the cellular site(s), kinetics, and molecular mechanisms of both the normal function of bFGF and its survival-promoting activity. Moreover, the injury-related rescue suggests that survival-promoting factors are readily available to provide a protective role in case of injury to the retina, presumably comparable to those that mediate the "conditioning lesion" effect in other neuronal systems.

Numerous inherited retinal degenerations exist in animals and humans, in which photoreceptors inexplicably degenerate and disappear. In RCS rats with inherited retinal dystrophy, the mutant gene is expressed in the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell, and leads to the loss of photoreceptor cells. Photoreceptors can be rescued from degeneration if they are juxtaposed to wild-type RPE cells in experimental chimaeras or by the transplantation of RPE cells from normal rats. In both cases, the rescue effect extends beyond the immediate boundaries of the normal RPE cells, suggesting trophic action of a diffusible factor(s) from the normal RPE cells. We considered that the fibroblast growth factors, aFGF and bFGF, might have such a trophic role as they are found in the retina and RPE cells; bFGF acts as a neurotrophic agent after axonal injury in several regions of the central nervous system, and bFGF induces retinal regeneration from developing RPE cells. Here we report that subretinal injection of bFGF results in extensive rescue of photoreceptors in RCS rats for at least two months after the injection, and that intravitreal injection of bFGF results in even more widespread rescue, across almost the entire retina. The findings demonstrate for the first time that bFGF can act as a survival-promoting neurotrophic factor in a hereditary neuronal degeneration of the central nervous system.

The normal function of vertebrate photoreceptor cells depends on multiple interactions and transfer of substances between the photoreceptors and the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), but the mechanisms of these interactions are poorly understood. Many are thought to be mediated by the interphotoreceptor matrix (IPM), a complex extracellular matrix that surrounds the photoreceptors and lies between them and the RPE. Histochemical, immunocytochemical, and lectin probes for several IPM constituents revealed that components of the IPM in the rat undergo a major shift in distribution or molecular conformation after the transition between light and dark. In the light, various IPM constituents concentrated in bands at the apical and basal regions of the outer segment zone; in the dark, they distributed much more uniformly throughout the zone. The change in IPM distribution was triggered by the light-dark transition; it was not a circadian event, and it was not driven by a systemic factor. The light-evoked change in IPM distribution may facilitate the transfer of substances between the photoreceptors and the RPE.