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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Jan 14.

Published in final edited form as: Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2008 May;49(5):2148–2155. doi: 10.1167/iovs.07-1012

Retinal morphology following TUDCA treatment at P30. A and B) Retinal micrographs from P30 WT C57BL/6 mice treated with TUDCA (A) or vehicle (B). All retinal layers are intact and the photoreceptor layers are normal. Qualitatively, panels A and B show no changes between treatment groups in any of the layers of the retina of WT mice. This finding suggests that TUDCA treatment at the given dose and for the indicated duration is safe. C and D) Retinal micrographs from rd10 mice treated with TUDCA (C) or vehicle (D). The photoreceptor layer has been reduced to about 1 row of nuclei in the vehicle-treated mouse (D), while the TUDCA-treated retina retains 3 to 4 rows of nuclei (C). Panels C and D show clear differences in the thicknesses of the ONL, outer segments (OS), and inner segments (IS), with TUDCA treatment demonstrating an efficacious delay of retinal degeneration. E and F) Plots of the total number of photoreceptors at each retinal location from WT and rd10 mice with reference to the optic nerve. The inset shows a schematic diagram of the retina and optic nerve. Each shaded square indicates a sampling region as indicated on the graphs. E). Photoreceptor cell counts in the WT mice from the two treatment groups show no differences across the retina. (n=5 TUDCA, n=2 vehicle, ANOVA F (3, 12) = 0.397, p = 0.757) F). Photoreceptor cell counts from rd10 mice treated with TUDCA (n=17) or vehicle (n=14). The TUDCA-treated mice have significantly more photoreceptors across all areas sampled than vehicle-treated mice (ANOVA F (3, 87) = 3.013, p = 0.034). We conclude that TUDCA treatment is efficacious in preventing or slowing photoreceptor degeneration up to P30 in the rd10 mouse model of RP.

Retinal morphology following TUDCA treatment at P30. A and B) Retinal micrographs from P30 WT C57BL/6 mice treated with TUDCA (A) or vehicle (B). All retinal layers are intact and the photoreceptor layers are normal. Qualitatively, panels A and B show no changes between treatment groups in any of the layers of the retina of WT mice. This finding suggests that TUDCA treatment at the given dose and for the indicated duration is safe. C and D) Retinal micrographs from rd10 mice treated with TUDCA (C) or vehicle (D). The photoreceptor layer has been reduced to about 1 row of nuclei in the vehicle-treated mouse (D), while the TUDCA-treated retina retains 3 to 4 rows of nuclei (C). Panels C and D show clear differences in the thicknesses of the ONL, outer segments (OS), and inner segments (IS), with TUDCA treatment demonstrating an efficacious delay of retinal degeneration. E and F) Plots of the total number of photoreceptors at each retinal location from WT and rd10 mice with reference to the optic nerve. The inset shows a schematic diagram of the retina and optic nerve. Each shaded square indicates a sampling region as indicated on the graphs. E). Photoreceptor cell counts in the WT mice from the two treatment groups show no differences across the retina. (n=5 TUDCA, n=2 vehicle, ANOVA F (3, 12) = 0.397, p = 0.757) F). Photoreceptor cell counts from rd10 mice treated with TUDCA (n=17) or vehicle (n=14). The TUDCA-treated mice have significantly more photoreceptors across all areas sampled than vehicle-treated mice (ANOVA F (3, 87) = 3.013, p = 0.034). We conclude that TUDCA treatment is efficacious in preventing or slowing photoreceptor degeneration up to P30 in the rd10 mouse model of RP.