| Budget Amount *help |
¥19,630,000 (Direct Cost: ¥15,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,530,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Fiscal Year 2010: ¥3,640,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥840,000)
Fiscal Year 2009: ¥5,460,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,260,000)
Fiscal Year 2008: ¥9,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥7,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,100,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The retianl prosthesis is one of the feasible methods to some extent to recover visual sensation of blind patients caused by the degeneration of photoreceptors in the retinas. The feasibility depends on the stabile function of retinal circuitry remaining after photoreceptors degeneration. Since remodeling of the retinal neurons and their networks has been reported, we investigated how electrophysiological and optical response in the retina and visual centers to transretinal electrical stimulation could changed during progress of photoreceptor degeneration in the RCS rat, which is well established as a model animal for patients with retinitis pigmentosa. No significant difference in collicular filed potentials and VSD images of visual cortical response to the stimulation was detected between young and old animals. Retinal cytoarchitecture and dendritic morphology of the retinal ganglion cells after loss of photoreceptors also is well preserved until 36 wks of age. These results suggest that remodeling of retinal circuitry, if any, might not be a seriously taken consideration in development of retinal prosthesis.
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