Introduction: We are studying retinal degeneration in rats as there currently is not a cure for said condition. Our lab has previously shown that electrical stimulation has slowed down the progression of retinal degeneration. We are now aiming to determine why is electrical stimulation biologically leading to a stall in retinal degeneration progression.
Materials and
Methods: For the experimental setup of the experiment, we: - Used the RCS Rat Model as our subject for testing, used both Male and Female rats - Used a stimulating ring to deliver the electrical stimulation directly to the retina - Induced different levels of electrical stimulation to different rats (20 uA, 50 uA, 100 uA, 150 uA) to have different samples and sets of results to compare and contrast with
In terms of data collection: - We performed RNA-sequencing of raw data list of transcriptomes(all the RNA) whose expression was affected by the electrical stimulation, along with the read counts for each transcriptome - In order to prepare the data for analysis, we first organize the data into readable tables for our software, R Studio
In terms of data analysis: - We apply differential expression analysis onto the RNA read counts data using DESeq in order to quantify the data by the level of expression each transcriptome experiences due to the various treatments
Results, Conclusions, and Discussions: The results show that more gene expression is promoted with higher levels of electrical stimulation, which shows a dope dependency relationship between the electrical stimulation and biological responses to it. Secondly, we were able to determine that when comparing male to female in terms of the types of genes they expressed, there was less than 10% overlap in that regard, which informs us that electrical stimulation does not produce the relatively similar biological responses when inducing the same treatment on both male and female rats, a point that is further corroborated by the distinct differences in gene function activity depicted by both IPA Pathway Analyses for a male and Female under the treatment of 150 uA. With that being said, however, the existence of that 10% gives us a set of genes to look deeper into as well in terms of what there functions are and the relevance those functions have towards retina degenerative diseases if any.
Acknowledgements (Optional): Thank you to Dr.Ragusa and the CNL Program for this great opportunity, Dr. Salhia for welcoming me into her lab and offering her guidance, as well as Ben Yi Tew, Zeyi Yang, and David Buckley for their guidance and support throughout my summer research experience.
