Glial cells expressing visual cycle genes are vital for photoreceptor survival in the zebrafish pineal gland

Autor: Yotam Elazary, Kathleen Cheow, Ruey‐Kuang Cheng, Raghumoy Ghosh, Inbal Shainer, Yair Wexler, Karen Crasta, Yoav Gothilf, Suresh J. Jesuthasan
Přispěvatelé: Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine)
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Pineal Research. 74
ISSN: 1600-079X
0742-3098
DOI: 10.1111/jpi.12854
Popis: Photoreceptors in the vertebrate eye are dependent on the retinal pigmented epithelium for a variety of functions including retinal re-isomerization and waste disposal. The light-sensitive pineal gland of fish, birds, and amphibians is evolutionarily related to the eye but lacks a pigmented epithelium. Thus, it is unclear how these functions are performed. Here, we ask whether a subpopulation of zebrafish pineal cells, which express glial markers and visual cycle genes, is involved in maintaining photoreceptors. Selective ablation of these cells leads to a loss of pineal photoreceptors. Moreover, these cells internalize exorhodopsin that is secreted by pineal rod-like photoreceptors, and in turn release CD63-positive extracellular vesicles (EVs) that are taken up by pdgfrb-positive phagocytic cells in the forebrain meninges. These results identify a subpopulation of glial cells that is critical for pineal photoreceptor survival and indicate the existence of cells in the forebrain meninges that receive EVs released by these pineal cells and potentially function in waste disposal. Ministry of Education (MOE) National Research Foundation (NRF) This work was funded by a joint grant from the Israel Science Foundation and National Research Foundation of Singapore (6276/17 and NRF2017‐NRF‐ISF002‐2676) to YG and SJ, and a Tier 1 Grant from the Singapore Ministry of Education (RG34/20) to SJ.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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