Noninvasive light flicker stimulation promotes optic nerve regeneration by activating microglia and enhancing neural plasticity in zebrafish

In the present study, we demonstrated that the optic nerve can spontaneously regenerate and that visual function can be restored after ONC in zebrafish. Forty-Hertz light flicker stimulation modulated microglia in the zebrafish retina after ONC, promoted dendritic remodeling and axonal regeneration of RGCs, and restored visual function. Transcriptomic and qPCR results both indicated that 40 Hz light flicker stimulation increased the expression of genes related to neural plasticity. In general, our study showed that 40 Hz light flicker stimulation promotes axonal and dendritic regeneration of RGCs, as well as the recovery of visual function, which is related to the activation of microglia and enhancement of neural plasticity.