Speaker
Dr
Mariateresa Mancuso
(ENEA CR Casaccia)
Description
Cataract (the opacification of the ocular lens) is the most frequent cause of blindness worldwide. The eye is well known to be one of the most radiosensitive tissues in the body and is clearly recognized that cataracts can be induced by high doses (>2 Gy) of ionizing radiation. Although much work has been carried out in this area, the exact mechanisms of radiation cataractogenesis are still not fully understood. In particular, very urgent is to resolve the question of threshold dose for cataract development, because recent epidemiological data indicate that cataracts are also observed in populations exposed to lower doses.
Thus, the establishment of an animal model of radiation cataract will help to elucidate the pathology underlying human cataractogenesis and to obtain more evidence concerning the existence of a threshold.
The Patched heterozygous mice represent a significant radiation-induced cataract mouse model developing early lens opacity (4 weeks post-irradiation with a single dose of X-rays) with an incidence of 30%.
We took advantage from the deep knowledge of this mouse model to investigate on the mechanisms responsible of cataract development with particular attention to other possible risk factors that cooperate to the etiology of this pathogenesis such as the age sensitivity to the radiation exposure and the gender dependence.
Primary author
Dr
Mariateresa Mancuso
(ENEA CR Casaccia)
Co-authors
Dr
Anna Saran
(ENEA CR Casaccia, Rome, Italy)
Dr
Arianna Casciati
(ENEA CR Casaccia, Rome, Italy)
Dr
Emanuela Pasquali
(Gugliemo Marconi University, Rome, Italy)
Dr
Ilaria De Stefano
(Gugliemo Marconi University, Rome, Italy)
Dr
Mirella Tanori
(ENEA CR Casaccia, Rome, Italy)
Dr
Paola Giardullo
(Gugliemo Marconi University, Rome, Italy)
Dr
Simona Leonardi
(ENEA CR Casaccia, Rome, Italy)
Dr
Simonetta Pazzaglia
(ENEA CR Casaccia, Rome, Italy)
