Gene therapy of the human retina levels of light. What follows often is the death of cone cells, responsible for color vision and acuity, at light levels present during the day. Loss of cones leads to full blindness as early as five years old, but may not onset until many years later. There have been multiple hypotheses about how the lack of rod cells can lead to the death of cone cells. Pinpointing a mechanism for RP is difficult because there are more than 39 genetic loci and genes correlated with this disease. In an effort to find the cause of RP, there have been different
Light effects on circadian rhythm tract (RHT) the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus receives light information from these ipRCGs. The ipRGCs serve a different function than rods and cones, even when isolated from the other components of the retina, ipRGCs maintain their photo-sensitivity and as a result can be sensitive to different ranges of the light spectrum. Additionally, ipRGC firing patterns may respond to light conditions as low as 1 lux whereas previous research indicated 2500 lux was required to suppress melatonin production. Circadian and other behavioral responses have shown to be more sensitive at lower wavelengths than the photopic luminous efficiency function which