Journal article
Did Edgar Degas have Stargardt disease?
Ophthalmic genetics, Vol.ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp.1-3
03/30/2021
DOI: 10.1080/13816810.2021.1904418
PMID: 33781147
Abstract
Renowned French painter Edgar Degas suffered of progressive light sensitivity and blurred central vision in both eyes, which affected his life and art in many ways. A first cousin from his mother's side, Estelle Musson of New Orleans also lost vision in a similar fashion at a comparable age. We postulated that Edgar and Estelle shared the same retinal pathology that possibly developed in a hereditary fashion, and we were interested whether any of their living family descendants might carry ABCA4 mutations to test the possibility that Edgar Degas may have had Stargardt disease.
Edgar was never married and had no children, but Estelle had five children, four of whom from her marriage to Edgar's younger brother, and there are several descendants still living in New Orleans area. Genetic testing on five of Estelle's great grandchildren (Edgar's great grandnieces) were performed searching for ABCA4 mutations.
We could not document any disease-causing variations in the ABCA4 gene in any of the descendants and therefore concluded that Edgar Degas most likely did not have Stargardt disease. Estelle and Edgar may have shared a different hereditary disease or have had two different retinal dystrophies or had another eye disease, including the unlikely possibility of inflammatory disease.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Did Edgar Degas have Stargardt disease?
- Creators
- Z. A Karcioglu - University of VirginiaE. M Stone - Institute for Vision Research, Carver College of Medicine, University of IowaM. F Marmor - Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Ophthalmic genetics, Vol.ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp.1-3
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- DOI
- 10.1080/13816810.2021.1904418
- PMID
- 33781147
- ISSN
- 1381-6810
- eISSN
- 1744-5094
- Grant note
- name: did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors, related to this work
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 03/30/2021
- Academic Unit
- The University of Iowa Institute for Vision Research; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; John and Marcia Carver Nonprofit Genetic Testing Laboratory; Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984070617202771
Metrics
22 Record Views