RHO and retinitis pigmentosa: Microglial activation in P23H [47] and other rodent models of retinitis pigmentosa caused by rhodopsin mutations [62,63,64] has been described as contributing to the death of the photoreceptors, and interventions that reduce cell death correlate with reduced microglial activation [65] Our data confirm the converse of this postulate, which is that increased cell death as a result of either ⍺A- and ⍺B-crystallin knockout is associated with an increased inflammatory response and increased microglial activation.