Color Blindness and Blood Vessel Formation
July 31, 2018 | Terry Sharrer
Achromatopsia (aka cone rod dystrophy) is a form of colorblindness that can be partial or total. In studying the biology involved in this condition, researchers at UC-San Diego discovered a transcription factor, AFT6, which previously was unknown to have a role. But, further, in searching for a small-molecule that might activate AFT6, these investigators not only found a compound, AA147, which worked, but also observed that in stem cells, AA147 caused the transcription factor to promote new blood vessel formation. While the AA147/AFT6 connection has not yet been studied sufficiently to know if it might be applied in other regenerative processes, that lead certainly is promising. MORE
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