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Burning fat fuels photoreceptors

Nature Medicine volume 22, pages 342–343 (2016)Cite this article

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Current dogma suggests that high-energy–consuming photoreceptors depend on glucose. A new study reveals that the retina also uses fatty acid b-oxidation for energy, and that dysregulated lipid and glucose photoreceptor energy metabolism may drive neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

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Figure 1: Joyal et al.7 show that in the mouse retina, fatty acids are used as an additional energy supply to glucose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Raju V.S. Rajala is in the Department of Ophthalmology and Physiology, Dean McGee Eye Institute, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA.,

    Raju V S Rajala

  2. Thomas W. Gardner is in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, W.K. Kellogg Eye Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.,

    Thomas W Gardner

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  1. Raju V S Rajala
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  2. Thomas W Gardner
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Correspondence to Raju V S Rajala or Thomas W Gardner.

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Rajala, R., Gardner, T. Burning fat fuels photoreceptors. Nat Med 22, 342–343 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4080

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