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Inhibition Of Retinoic Acid Receptors Results In Defasciculation Of The Trigeminal Nerve In Xenopus Laevis, Jeremy Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

The anatomy of the cranial peripheral nervous system has been studied for over a century, yet surprisingly little is known about how the nerves are guided to their targets. The study of the development of these nerves has important implications for our understanding of craniofacial anomalies and possible treatments for both injury and genetic disorders of nerve development such as Goldenhar-Gorlin syndrome. We have discovered that retinoic acid (RA) may play a role in the development of the trigeminal nerve. Inhibition of retinoic acid receptors (RAR) results in trigeminal nerves that become unbundled or defasciculated in the eye region. To …