Abstract
Presentation Description :
Regeneration of the retina in vertebrates that possess this ability, is accomplished by dramatic changes in cell fate: after injury, existing non-neuronal cells, like the pigmented epithelium or the Muller glial cells, re-acquire transcriptomic signatures of embryonic progenitor cells and repopulate the neural retina with new neurons. These dramatic changes in transcription are accompanied by changes in the epigenome. This process can be simulated in mice, by transgenically expressing the proneural transcription factor Ascl1 in Muller glia, causing similar changes in transcription and the epigenome of these cells, leading to regeneration of new neurons in mice. In this talk I will review our findings in this area and highlight similarties and differences in the epigenome in regenerating and developing retina. We find that while many features of the progenitor-like cells that arise from Ascl1-reprogrammed Muller glia are very much like those of embryonic retinal progenitors, other features reflect the glial origin of the MG-derived progenitors. These findings have led us to improve the process of retinal regeneration in mice and potentially in human retina as well.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.