PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Yusaku Katada
AU  - Hiromitsu Kunimi
AU  - Kenta Kobayashi
AU  - Hideyuki Okano
AU  - Kenji F. Tanaka
AU  - Kazuo Tsubota
AU  - Toshihide Kurihara
TI  - Starburst amacrine cells amplify optogenetic visual restoration through gap junctions
AID  - 10.1101/2020.08.11.246686
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.08.11.246686
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/08/12/2020.08.11.246686.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/08/12/2020.08.11.246686.full
AB  - Ectopic induction of optogenetic actuators, such as channelrhodopsin, is a promising approach to restore vision in the degenerating retina. However, the cell type-specific response of ectopic photoreception has not been well understood. It is not easy to obtain efficient gene expression in a specifically targeted cell population by a transgenic approach. In the present study, we established retinal ganglion cell (RGC)- and amacrine cell gene induction in a murine model with high efficiency using an improved tetracycline transactivator-operator bipartite system (KENGE-tet system). To investigate the cell type-specific visual restoration effect, we expressed the channel rhodopsin gene into RGCs and amacrine cells using this system. Then, enhancement of the visual restoration effect was observed by gene transfer not only to RGCs but also to starburst amacrine cells. It was suggested that photoresponse from amacrine cells enhanced the maintained response of ganglion cells and furthered the visual restoration effect.Competing Interest StatementY.K. is supported by grants from the Keio University Doctorate Student Grant-in-Aid Program. T.K. is supported by Grants-in-Aid from Takeda Science Foundation and the Keio University Medical Science Fund.