title: Nuclear receptor NR2E3 gene mutations distort human retinal laminar architecture and cause an unusual degeneration.
abstract: Mutations in the nuclear receptor gene, NR2E3, cause a disorder of human retinal photoreceptor development characterized by hyperfunction and excess of the minority S (short wavelength or blue) cone photoreceptor type, but near absence of function of the majority rod receptor. NR2E3 disease can also progress to blindness. How the human retina accommodates mis-specified types and numbers of neurons and advances to retinal degeneration are unknown. We studied the retinal organization in vivo of patients with NR2E3 mutations. Early human NR2E3 disease with S cone hyperfunction showed thickened retinal layers within an otherwise normally structured retina. With visual loss, however, lamination was coarse and there was a strikingly thick and bulging appearance to the retina, localized to an annulus encircling the central fovea. This pattern was not found in other retinal degenerations. The abnormal laminar retinal architecture of early NR2E3 disease may be due in part to larger cells with an S cone phenotype in place of rods that failed to differentiate. The later-stage dysplastic appearance suggests a previously unrecognized proliferative response in human retinal degeneration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Scheie Eye Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104, USA. jacobsos@mail.med.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Samuel G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Jacobson
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sumaroka
authors.forename: Tomas S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Aleman
authors.forename: Artur V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Cideciyan
authors.forename: Sharon B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.forename: Alejandro J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Roman
authors.forename: Roderick R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: McInnes
authors.forename: Val C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Sheffield
authors.forename: Edwin M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.forename: Anand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Swaroop
authors.forename: Alan F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Wright
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D057093:Orphan Nuclear Receptors; D011601:Psychophysics; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear / Q000235:genetics*; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology*; D012162:Retinal Degeneration / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: C403073:NR2E3 protein, human; D057093:Orphan Nuclear Receptors; D018160:Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear; D014157:Transcription Factors