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Abstract #108032 Published in IGR 23-4
Surgical Methods in Postmetamorphic Xenopus laevis: Optic Nerve Crush Injury Model
Feidler AM; Nguyen HHM; Watson FLMethods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) 2023; 2636: 205-219
Many human optic neuropathies lead to crippling conditions resulting in partial or complete loss of vision. While the retina is made up of several different cell types, retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the only cell type connecting the eye to the brain. Optic nerve crush injuries, wherein RGC axons are damaged without severing the optic nerve sheath, can serve as a model for traumatic optical neuropathies as well as some progressive neuropathies such as glaucoma. In this chapter, we describe two different surgical methods for establishing an optic nerve crush (ONC) injury in the postmetamorphic frog, Xenopus laevis. Why use the frog as an animal model? Mammals lose the ability to regenerate damaged CNS neurons, but amphibians and fish retain the ability to regenerate new RGC bodies and regrow RGC axons following an injury. In addition to presenting two different surgical ONC injury methods, we highlight their advantages and disadvantages and discuss the distinctive characteristics of Xenopus laevis as an animal model for studying CNS regeneration.
Department of Biology & Program in Neuroscience, Washington and Lee University, Virginia, USA.
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