Retinal Prion Disease Study Redefines Role for Brain Cells | NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Retinal Prion Disease Study Redefines Role for Brain Cells | NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Thursday, March 28, 2019 Retinal Prion Disease Study Redefines Microglia Role NIAID scientists studying inherited and infectious eye diseases that can cause blindness have found that microglia, a type of nervous system cell suspected to cause retinal damage, surprisingly had no damaging role during prion disease in mice. In fact, the study findings indicated that microglia might delay disease progression. The discovery could apply to studies of inherited photoreceptor degeneration diseases in people, known as retinitis pigmentosa.