While the three week old animals highlighted many known gene expression changes that have been observed in a number of other retinal degeneration models53–55, namely a downregulation in visual perception pathways and an upregulation in inflammation and immune system response genes, as would be expected if the photoreceptors were starting to die at this age, we were surprised to detect a unique conspicuous feature of the AdipoR1 KO at two weeks of age – an upregulation of Irbp, a gene that encodes a key retinoid transport protein produced and secreted exclusively by photoreceptors. Here, RBP3 is linked to retinal degeneration.