Digital Commons Network^™

Photobiomodulation In Inherited Retinal Degeneration, Sandeep Gopalakrishnan

Theses and Dissertations

The retinal degenerative disease, retinitis pigmentosa (RP), is the most common cause of inherited blindness in the developed world and is caused by the progressive degeneration of rod photoreceptor cells preceding cone degeneration. Mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress have been shown to play a significant role in the pathogenesis of RP and other retinal degenerative diseases. A growing body of evidence indicates that exposure of tissue to low energy photon irradiation in the far-red to near-infrared (NIR) range of the spectrum, (photobiomodulation or PBM) acts on mitochondria-mediated signaling pathways to attenuate oxidative stress and prevent cell death. These studies tested …