Visual deficits in Down syndrome: morphofunctional organization of the retina of a mouse model of the disease

• Grant number: 24/02004-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2024
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Organs and Systems
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Roberto Giorgetti de Britto
• Grantee: Livia Marques Kilinsky
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Down Syndrome (DS) is a genetic condition resulting from the triplication of chromosome 21in humans, responsible for causing multiple health problems. The syndrome influences thedevelopment of the nervous system, and many of the problems development areophthalmological, mainly affecting the retina-thalamus-cortex pathway, demonstrating athickening of the cortical region of the brain of patients, as well as a thickening of the retina,demonstrating developmental problems in the retina of patients with DS. The Ts65Dn mousemodel for DS has a thickening of the retina, mainly in two specific layers, which are the innerplexiform and inner nuclear layers, and scientific literature shows a possible increase in thenumber of macroglial cells, ganglion cells and GABAergic amacrine cells in the retina, inaddition to a possible increase in the number of synapses. The current study aims to analyzethe functional morphology of the retinas of Ts65Dn mice compared to the wild-type C57BL/6mouse to evaluate, through immunofluorescence, some aspects of the morphofunctionalorganization of the retinas from Ts65Dn mice. We anticipate that the study may producerelevant data to enable a more complete understanding of the visual deficits of DS patients.