One Cause of Blindness Found
Researchers have found a possible cause of retinitis pigmentosa. The hereditary disease affects about 8,000 Americans,including casino mogul Steve Wynn. The condition affects night and peripheral vision, many patients eventually become blind.
In people of Jewish descent, RP is associated with a harmful mutation in a gene called MAK. This gene had not been implicated in human vision troubles, but now the existence of a link seems likely.
The gene creates a protein in the retina. The mutated version makes a different, less useful form of the protein, and vision gradually diminishes.