TY - JOUR AU - Li, Yan AU - Semaan, Sheila J. AU - Schlamp, Cassandra L. AU - Nickells, Robert W. PY - 2007 DA - 2007/03/05 TI - Dominant inheritance of retinal ganglion cell resistance to optic nerve crush in mice JO - BMC Neuroscience SP - 19 VL - 8 IS - 1 AB - Several neurodegenerative diseases are influenced by complex genetics that affect an individual's susceptibility, disease severity, and rate of progression. One such disease is glaucoma, a chronic neurodegenerative condition of the eye that targets and stimulates apoptosis of CNS neurons called retinal ganglion cells. Since ganglion cell death is intrinsic, it is reasonable that the genes that control this process may contribute to the complex genetics that affect ganglion cell susceptibility to disease. To determine if genetic background influences susceptibility to optic nerve damage, leading to ganglion cell death, we performed optic nerve crush on 15 different inbred lines of mice and measured ganglion cell loss. Resistant and susceptible strains were used in a reciprocal breeding strategy to examine the inheritance pattern of the resistance phenotype. Because earlier studies had implicated Bax as a susceptibility allele for ganglion cell death in the chronic neurodegenerative disease glaucoma, we conducted allelic segregation analysis and mRNA quantification to assess this gene as a candidate for the cell death phenotype. SN - 1471-2202 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2202-8-19 DO - 10.1186/1471-2202-8-19 ID - Li2007 ER -