| First Author | Sidman RL | Year | 1988 |
| Journal | Mouse News Lett | Volume | 81 |
| Pages | 60 | Mgi Jnum | J:14141 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:62316 | Citation | Sidman RL, et al. (1988) Vitiligo: a new retinal degeneration mutation. Mouse News Lett 81:60 |
| abstractText | Full text of MNL contribution: 3. Vitiligo: A new retinal degeneration mutation. Mice homozygous for the recessive mutation vitiligo (vit), obtained from Dr. Aaron Lerner (Department of Dermatology, Yale), were found to display slow progressive loss of photoreceptor cells. At two months of age, there is moderate disorganization in the rod outer segment layer with lamellated debris and phagocytic cells. At five months, few intact rod outer segments persist and loss of photoreceptor nuclei is severe. By one year of age, there is virtually complete loss of photoreceptor cells. Vitiligo mice are piebald at birth and show progressive loss of pigmentation (MNL 74:125); pigmentary and other defects are also seen at early ages in the retinal pigment epithelium (PE). PE cells have short, closely-packed apical microvillous processes that do not envelop photoreceptor outer segments as they do in normal retinas. The neural retina detaches from the PE relatively early in the progression of the degeneration. The hypothesis that the retinal pigmented epithelium may be the site of the vit gene action is suggested by morphological similarities between the retinas of vit/vit mice and RCS rats with retinal dystrophy (rdy/rdy). (Richard L. Sidman and Paul Neumann) |
