I am very excited to share our latest work from the Rothlin-Ghosh Lab! I’m grateful to my co-author Yemsratch Akalu and everyone involved.
🔬👁 Below is a 🧵 of our main findings:
Early-onset retinal degeneration was thought to be a direct consequence of failed MERTK-mediated phagocytosis of photoreceptor outer segments by RPE cells.
In our first study, we found that the loss of Mertk alone was not sufficient for retinal degeneration. Instead, retinal degeneration manifests only when Mertk and Tyro3 are concomitantly lost.
https://t.co/yws41bp0VX
Moreover, inhibition of RPE inflammation with Ruxolitinib, a JAK1/2 inhibitor, mitigated the severity of the aggressive, early-onset retina degeneration phenotype observed in Mertk knock out mice.