Jennifer Calvo, Lisianne Meira, Catherine Moroski, Leona Samson
Samson Laboratory, Center for Environmental Health Sciences and Department of Biological Engineering
Epi-Fluorescence Micrograph

"Vision loss affects more than 3 million Americans and many more people worldwide. Although predisposing genes have been identified their link to known environmental factors is unclear.  Shown here are hematoxylin- and eosin-stained images of a retina isolated seven days following treatment with the alkylating agent, MMS.  This image clearly demonstrates severe retinal degeneration in the outer nuclear layer of the wild-type retina (top image), whereas a retina lacking alkyladenine DNA glycosylase (AAG) is phenotypically-normal (bottom image).  The image demonstrates that AAG may contribute to alkylating agent-induced retinal degeneration."