Cell Mechanism Leading to Diabetic Blindness Identified

February 1, 2010 -- Scientists have long known that high blood sugar levels from diabetes damage blood vessels in the eye, but they didn't know why or how. Now a Michigan State University scientist has discovered the process that causes retinal cells to die, which could lead to new treatments that halt the damage. Diabetic retinopathy is a common side effect of diabetes and the leading cause of blindness in young adults in the United States. It's estimated that between 40 percent and 45 percent of people diagnosed with diabetes have some degree of diabetic retinopathy. Research by Susanne Mohr, MSU associate professor of physiology, found the siah-1 protein is produced by the body when blood sugar levels are high. She then discovered that the siah-1 protein serves as a type of chauffeur for another protein, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), shuttling the GAPDH into the nucleus of Müller cells, special cells that have contact with the blood vessels in the eye. When GAPDH accumulates in their nuclei, the Müller cells die, which leads to the vascular damage associated with diabetic retinopathy.
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New Insights Into Inherited Retinal Disease

January 18, 2010 -- An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered new links between a common form of inherited blindness affecting children and a gene known as Abelson helper integration site-1 (AHI1). Their findings, which may lead to new therapies and improved diagnostics for retinal disease, will appear online in advance of publication in the journal Nature Genetics on January 17. A newly recognized class of disease known as "ciliopathies" has caught the attention of the medical community. Ciliopathies are caused by problems in the structure and/or function of cilia, which are small antenna-like structures protruding from the surface of most cells.
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More Evidence on Benefits of High Blood Pressure Drugs in Diabetic Eye Disease

January 18, 2010 -- Scientists in Massachusetts are reporting new evidence that certain high blood pressure drugs may be useful in preventing and treating diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of vision loss in people with diabetes. The study, the largest to date on proteins in the retina, could lead to new ways to prevent or treat the sight-threatening disease, they say. The findings are in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, a monthly publication. Edward Feener and colleagues point out that diabetic retinopathy is a common complication of diabetes, which affects millions of people worldwide. It involves damage to blood vessels in the retina, the light sensitive tissue in the back of the eye. Previous studies suggested that drugs used to treat high blood pressure, including ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), may help prevent the condition.
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Seeing a Diagnosis: How an Eye Test Could Aid Alzheimer's Detection

January 15, 2010 -- A simple and inexpensive eye test could aid detection and diagnosis of major neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's at an earlier stage than is currently possible, according to new research by UCL scientists. The research, led by Professors Francesca Cordeiro & Stephen Moss and published in Cell Death & Disease, demonstrates a new technique that enables retinal, and therefore brain cell death, to be directly measured in real time. The method, demonstrated in an animal model, could not only refine diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders and help track disease progress; it could also aid the assessment and development of new treatments.
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Diabetic Eye Disease More Severe in African-Americans Who Consume More Calories, Sodium

January 12, 2010 -- High intakes of calories and sodium appear to be associated with the progression of retinal disease among African American patients with diabetes, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness among 20- to 64-year-olds with diabetes, according to background information in the article. The condition occurs when diabetes-related changes to the body damage the blood vessels of the retina. Proliferative retinopathy (involving the growth of new blood vessels in the retina) and macular edema (when fluid leaks into the macula, the part of the eye responsible for sharp vision) -- collectively called vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy -- are the two main causes of vision loss in patients with diabetes.
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Researcher Links Diabetic Complication to Nerve Damage in Bone Marrow

January 8, 2010 -- A research team led by a Michigan State University professor has discovered a link between diabetes and bone marrow nerve damage that may help treat one of the disease's most common and potentially blindness-causing complications. The key to better treating retinopathy -- damage to blood vessels in the retina that affects up to 80 percent of diabetic patients -- lies not in the retina but in damage to the nerves found in bone marrow that leads to the abnormal release of stem cells, said Julia Busik, an associate professor in MSU's Department of Physiology.
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Discovery May Help Stop Age-Related Macular Degeneration at the Molecular Level

January 6, 2010 -- Researchers at University College London say they have gleaned a key insight into the molecular beginnings of age-related macular degeneration, the No. 1 cause of vision loss in the elderly, by determining how two key proteins interact to naturally prevent the onset of the condition. In a paper to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the team reports for the first time how a common blood protein linked to the eye condition reins in another protein that, when produced in vastly increased amounts in the presence of inflammation or infection, can damage the eye. "By starting to understand these interactions in greater detail, we can begin to devise methods that will ultimately prevent the development of blindness in the elderly," said Zuby Okemefuna, the lead author of the paper to be published Jan. 8.
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Can Supplements Help People With Diabetes Avoid Retinopathy?

January 5, 2010 -- In theory, Vitamins C and E and magnesium could help prevent or limit diabetic retinopathy (DR), a potentially blinding disease, since each nutrient causes the body to respond in ways that alter retinopathy mechanisms. For example, in animal models Vitamins C and E suppress production of a growth factor, VEG-F, which can promote abnormal blood vessels in the retina. And high dietary levels of magnesium are associated with lower blood pressure and blood sugar, both of which correlate with a lower risk of retinopathy.
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It's Never Too Late to Quit Smoking and Save Your Vision

January 2, 2010 -- Need a little extra incentive to kick the habit? Just in time for New Year's resolutions, a UCLA study finds that even after age 80, smoking continues to increase one's risk for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in Americans over 65. The American Journal of Ophthalmology publishes the findings in its January edition. "The take-home message is that it's never too late to quit smoking," said lead author Dr. Anne Coleman, professor of ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. "We found that even older people's eyes will benefit from kicking the habit."
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New Inherited Eye Disease Discovered

December 25, 2009 -- University of Iowa researchers have found the existence of a new, rare inherited retinal disease. Now the search is on to find the genetic cause, which investigators hope will increase understanding of more common retinal diseases. The findings appeared in the Nov. 9 issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology. The macula, located within the retina, is an area of high-resolution central vision that is needed to read or drive, for example. This area is damaged in more common retinal conditions such as macular degeneration and can be damaged by diabetes.
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Eat Fruits and Vegetables for Better Vision

December 19, 2009 -- Carotenoids, found in green leafy vegetables and colored fruits, have been found to increase visual performance and may prevent age-related eye diseases, according to a study in the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists. Authors from the University of Georgia compiled the results of multiple studies on the effects of the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin on visual performance. These carotenoids play an important role in human vision, including a positive impact on the retina.
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Steroid Injections May Slow Diabetes-Related Eye Disease

December 18, 2009 -- Injecting the corticosteroid triamcinolone into the eye may slow the progression of diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that can cause vision loss and blindness, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Proliferative diabetic retinopathy occurs when new blood vessels form on the optic disc or another component of the retina, according to background information in the article. Despite advances in treating both diabetes and its complications, about 700,000 Americans have proliferative diabetic retinopathy and 63,000 new cases develop each year.
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Myopia Appears to Have Become More Common

December 15, 2009 -- Myopia (nearsightedness) may have been more common in Americans from 1999 to 2004 than it was 30 years ago, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Myopia, or nearsightedness, is a common condition in which the image of an object seen in the distance is focused anterior to the retina and is consequently out of focus when it reaches the retina," according to background information in the article. "Blurred vision caused by myopia can be treated by corrective lenses (eyeglasses or contact lenses) or refractive surgery."
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Successful Stem Cell Therapy for Treatment of Eye Disease

December 11, 2009 -- Newly published research, by investigators, at the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI) in the journal Stem Cells reported the first successful treatment of eight patients with "Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency" (LSCD) using the patients' own stem cells without the need of suppressing their immunity. LSCD is a painful, blinding disease that requires long-term, costly treatment with frequent clinic visits and intensive hospital admissions. The vision loss due to LSCD makes this disease not only costly, but often requires social support due to the enormous impact on patient's quality of life. This is further magnified by the fact that LSCD mostly affects young patients.
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Eye Floaters and Flashes of Light Linked to Retinal Tear, Detachment

November 25, 2009 -- Suddenly seeing floaters or flashes of light may indicate a serious eye problem that -- if untreated -- could lead to blindness, a new study shows. Researchers from Queen's University and Hotel Dieu Hospital in Kingston have discovered that one in seven patients with this symptom will have a retinal tear or detachment. "If we detect a tear and laser it, we can save people from potentially going blind," says senior author of the study Dr. Sanjay Sharma, a professor of Ophthalmology and Epidemiology at Queen's and head of the Unit for Cost-Effective Ocular Health Policy at HDH. "But if fluid gets in under the retina and causes it to detach, it may be too late."
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Sight Gone, but Not Necessarily Lost?

November 18, 2009 -- Like all tissues in the body, the eye needs a healthy blood supply to function properly. Poorly developed blood vessels can lead to visual impairment or even blindness. While many of the molecules involved in guiding the development of the intricate blood vessel architecture are known, only now are we learning how these molecules work and how they might affect sight. Reporting in the Oct. 16 issue of Cell, researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine find that when some cells in the mouse retina are not properly fed by blood vessels, they can remain alive for many months and can later recover some or all of their normal function, suggesting that similar conditions in people may also be reversible.
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Eye Floaters and Flashes of Light Linked to Retinal Tear, Detachment

November 17, 2009 -- Determining what triggers the death of retinal cells, called photoreceptors, could hold the key to stopping blinding disorders caused by a wide range of eye diseases, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the November journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. Several blinding disorders are known to cause the breakdown of photoreceptors. Caroline Zeiss, associate professor of comparative medicine and ophthalmology at Yale School of Medicine, and her colleagues sought to identify a mechanism in photoreceptors that could be targeted to prolong their survival. Using preserved animal and human retinal tissue, they studied different diseases with a range of genetic mutations that caused photoreceptor death, such as age-related macular degeneration and retinal pigmentosa.
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Lack of VEGF Can Cause Defects Similar to Dry Macular Degeneration

November 13, 2009 -- Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute have found that when the eye is missing a diffusible form of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), i.e. one that when secreted can reach other cells at a distance, the retina shows defects similar to "dry" macular degeneration, also called geographic atrophy (GA). This finding, published in the November 3, 2009 print edition of PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), not only increases the understanding of the causes of this blinding disease, but it may also impact the use of anti-VEGF drugs, such as Lucentis, which are designed to neutralize VEGF in eyes with "wet" macular degeneration.
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Does Nearsightedness Reduce The Risk Of Diabetic Retinopathy?

October 26, 2009 -- To learn more about factors that may reduce diabetic retinopathy (DR) risk, Laurence Shen Lim, MRCS, and colleagues at the Singapore National Eye Centre, studied how refractive error (vision worse than 20/20, without glasses) relates to the presence and severity of DR. Earlier, smaller studies had suggested a protective effect for nearsightedness (myopia), but were inconclusive. Dr. Lim's study -- presented at the 2009 Joint Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology (PAAO) -- is the first to include axial length (AL, measured from the front to back of the eye) in an analysis of the myopia-DR relationship. About 10 percent of people with diabetes develop DR, which damages the eye's retina, the specialized tissue where images are focused for relay to the brain's visual cortex. DR is a major cause of vision loss worldwide.
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Researchers Discover Mechanism That Helps Humans See In Bright And Low Light

October 14, 2009 -- Ever wonder how your eyes adjust during a blackout? When we go from light to near total darkness, cells in the retina must quickly adjust. Vision scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified an intricate process that allows the human eye to adapt to darkness very quickly. The same process also allows the eye to function in bright light. The discovery could contribute to better understanding of human diseases that affect the retina, including age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in Americans over 50. That's because the disease and the pathway the researchers have identified both involve cells called cone cells.
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New Device Finds Early Signs Of Eye Disease In Preemies

September 30, 2009 -- Tell-tale signs of a condition that can blind premature babies are being seen for the first time using a new handheld device in a study at Duke University Medical Center. The technology, developed in part by Duke biomedical engineers, uses spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD OCT) to create a 3-D picture of the back of the eye. "This new tool is changing the way we identify eye conditions in infants," says Cynthia Toth, MD, an ophthalmologist at the Duke Eye Center, who is leading the study that appears online this month in the journal Ophthalmology. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is one of the most common causes of vision loss in children, affecting about 16,000 babies each year, according to the National Eye Institute. It occurs when babies are born prematurely and their retinal blood vessels don't develop fully.
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A Chip For The Eye? Artificial Vision Enhancers Being Put To The Test

September 21, 2009 -- Visually impaired or blind patients with degenerative retina conditions would be very happy if they were able to regain mobility, find their way around, be able to lead an independent life and to recognize faces and read again. These wishes were documented by a survey conducted by a research team ten years ago to find out what patients’ expectations of electronic retina prostheses (retina implants) were. Today these wishes look set to become reality, as the presentations to be given at the international symposium “Artificial Vision” on 19 September 2009 at the Wissenschaftszentrum Bonn demonstrate. The symposium is being staged by the Retina Implant Foundation and the Pro Retina Stiftung zur Verhütung von Blindheit (Pro Retina Foundation for the Prevention of Blindness), a foundation of the patients’ organization Pro Retina Deutschland e.V.
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Visual Detection: New Neural Circuits Identified In The Retina

September 17, 2009 -- The detection of approaching objects, such as looming predators, is necessary for survival. Which neurons and nerve circuits mediate this function? A new type of nerve cell, sensitive to approaching motion, has recently been identified in mice. This new retinal function has been brought to light by Rava Azeredo da Silveira of the Laboratoire de Physique Statistique of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS / UPMC / Université Paris Diderot / CNRS) and a team of researchers from the Friedrich-Miescher Institute in Switzerland. Their work was published online on 6 September 2009 on the website of Nature Neuroscience. The retina has traditionally been considered as a simple ‘filter' through which the visual world is transmitted from the eye to the brain. However, several discoveries made over recent years have altered this image: the retina performs sophisticated processing of visual information and transmits a selective screening of this visual information to the brain.
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Steroid injections offer 'vision restoration' hope for patients with blocked eye veins

September 15, 2009 -- The injections of the steroid corticosteroid triamcinolone may help restore vision in some patients with retinal vein occlusion, an important cause of vision loss that results from blockages in the blood vessels in the retina, say two research papers. Retinal vein occlusion is an important cause of vision loss worldwide, according to background information in the articles published in the September issue of Archives of Ophthalmology. The condition frequently occurs in individuals with diabetes, and leads to macular edema, or fluid build-up in the retina. Although a laser treatment of the retina called grid photocoagulation has shown a benefit in improving the vision of patients with blockages in smaller branches of the retinal vein, there is presently no effective therapy for vision loss associated with macular edema after central retinal vein occlusion—blockage in the main portion of the retinal vein, at the optic nerve.
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Retina Cells Created From Skin-derived Stem Cells

August 25, 2009 -- A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health has successfully grown multiple types of retina cells from two types of stem cells — suggesting a future in which damaged retinas could be repaired by cells grown from the patient's own skin. Even sooner, the discovery will lead to laboratory models for studying genetically linked eye conditions, screening new drugs to treat those conditions and understanding the development of the human eye. A Waisman Center research team led by David Gamm, an assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and Jason Meyer, a research scientist, announced their discovery in the Aug. 24 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Vision Researchers See Unexpected Gain One Year Into Blindness Trial

August 14, 2009 -- Three young adults who received gene therapy for a blinding eye condition remained healthy and maintained previous visual gains one year later, according to an August online report in Human Gene Therapy. One patient also noticed a visual improvement that helped her perform daily tasks, which scientists describe in an Aug. 13 letter to the editor in the New England Journal of Medicine. These findings have emerged from a phase I clinical trial supported by the National Eye Institute (NEI) at the National Institutes of Health, and conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and the University of Florida, Gainesville. This is the first study that reports the one-year safety and effectiveness of successful gene therapy for a form of Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a currently untreatable hereditary condition that causes severe vision loss and blindness in infants and children.
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Study Identifies Risk Factors For Transformation Of Eye Growths Into Melanoma

August 12, 2009 -- Eight factors may predict whether a choroidal nevus—a benign, flat, pigmented growth inside the eye and beneath the retina—may develop into melanoma, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "There is strong interest for early detection of choroidal melanoma [a malignant growth], and its differentiation from nevus continues to be the major impediment," the authors write as background information in the article. Benign choroidal nevi and small melanomas share many characteristics, including color, location and size."
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Artificial-retina Project Designed To Restore Sight To The Blind

August 4, 2009 -- Research performed at Caltech as part of a collaborative U.S. Department of Energy–funded artificial-retina project designed to restore sight to the blind has received one of R&D Magazine's 2009 R&D 100 Awards. The prize recognizes significant new technologies that exemplify the most innovative ideas of the previous year. The artificial retina is a bioelectronic implant that aims to give people with age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa—two severe forms of retinal degeneration that lead to blindness—the ability to recognize objects and navigate through their environment. It works via a camera mounted on a pair of glasses, which sends visual information to an implanted electronic receiver.
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Brain's Center For Perceiving 3-D Motion Is Identified

July 21, 2009 -- Ducking a punch or a thrown spear calls for the power of the human brain to process 3-D motion, and to perceive an object (whether it's offensive or not) moving in three dimensions is critical to survival. It also leads to a lot of fun at 3-D movies. Neuroscientists have now pinpointed where and how the brain processes 3-D motion using specially developed computer displays and an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) machine to scan the brain. They found, surprisingly, that 3-D motion processing occurs in an area in the brain—located just behind the left and right ears—long thought to only be responsible for processing two-dimensional motion (up, down, left and right). This area, known simply as MT+, and its underlying neuron circuitry are so well studied that most scientists had concluded that 3-D motion must be processed elsewhere. Until now.
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Natural Compound Stops Retinopathy, Study Suggests

July 3, 2009 -- Researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have found a way to use a natural compound to stop one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States. The research appears online this month in the journal Diabetes, a publication of the American Diabetes Association. The discovery of the compound’s function in inflammation and blood vessel formation related to eye disease means scientists can now develop new therapies –including eye drops – to stop diabetic retinopathy, a disease which affects as many as five million Americans with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
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Half of Contact Lens Wearers Suffer Complications

July 1, 2009 -- A new UCLA study indicates half of contact lens wearers will experience a complication, some vision threatening. The study used a cross-section analysis of the types and prevalence of contact lens related complications among patients seen at the Jules Stein Eye Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles. Of the 572 patients in the study, approximately 50% had at least one contact lens related complication. Rigid gas permeable (RGP) contacts had a statistically lower average number of complications than soft contacts. Papillae and giant papillary conjunctivitis were the most prevalent complications. Generic and private label solutions had the highest rate of complications compared with name brand solutions.
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Omega-3 fatty acids may prevent progression of AMD, according to study

June 22, 2009 -- Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish such as tuna and salmon may protect against progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The benefits, however, seem to depend on the stage of the disease and whether certain supplements are taken, report researchers at the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research (LNVR), Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University. Researchers calculated intakes of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) from dietary questionnaires administered to 2,924 men and women, aged 55 to 80 years, participating in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) of the National Eye Institute (NEI).
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Breakthrough In Early Detection And Prevention Of Age-related Macular Degeneration

June 16, 2009 -- Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine in collaboration with lead investigators at the University of Kentucky have identified a new target for the diagnosis and treatment of age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in older Americans. In a study published online June 14, 2009 by the journal Nature, the researchers demonstrate that blocking the activity of a specific protein – called CCR3 -- can reduce the abnormal blood vessel growth that leads to macular degeneration. Furthermore, targeting this new protein may prove to be safer and more effective than the current treatment for the disease, which is directed at a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor or “VEGF.”
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Not Just Through The Eyes: Squid 'Sight' Offers Insight Into Treating Human Eye Diseases

June 3, 2009 -- It's hard to miss the huge eye of a squid. But now it appears that certain squids can detect light through an organ other than their eyes as well. That's what researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report in the June 2 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study shows that the light-emitting organ some squids use to camouflage themselves to avoid being seen by predators — usually fish sitting on the ocean floor — also detects light. The findings may lead to future studies that provide insight into the mechanisms of controlling and perceiving light.
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Gene For Day Blindness In Dachshunds Found

June 2, 2009 -- A PhD project by Anne Caroline Wiik has discovered the genetic cause of day blindness or "cone-rod dystrophy” in the wire-haired dachshund. The disease was discovered in two litter mates in 1999 and has since been studied in both clinical and genetic trials in offspring of these. In her thesis, Anne Caroline Wiik concentrated on finding the genetic mutation that causes this disease. Day blindness is a recessive, heritable disease in which both parents need to be carriers in order for the disease to develop. Inherited photoreceptor diseases, or diseases in the sensory cells of the retina (rods and cones), occur naturally in both animals and man. They comprise the most common form of inherited retinal disease in people, with an occurrence of approximately 1 in 4,000.
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New Target Identified For Potential Treatment Of Retinopathy In Premature Babies

May 11, 2009 -- Results of a study in mice by researchers at the University of California, San Diego strongly suggest that the protein kinase JNK1 plays a key role in the development of retinopathy in premature infants. Their findings, reported online the week of May 4-9 in advance of print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), may lead to an effective way to treat the leading cause of childhood blindness in industrialized countries using JNK1 inhibitors. Retinopathy, damage to the thin layer of cells at the back of the eyeball where light is converted into neural signals sent to the brain, is often caused by the growth of abnormal blood vessels and can lead to loss of vision.
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First Study Of Combined Dietary Factors Finds Reduced AMD Risks

May 1, 2009 -- A diet that includes key nutrients and low-glycemic index foods is likely to reduce risks for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to the first study to analyze these factors in combination. Chung-Jung Chiu, PhD, of the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research, Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, led this new analysis of Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) data. The study team included AREDS researchers and was funded in part by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Level Of Cellular Stress Determines Longevity Of Retinal Cells

April 29, 2009 -- Stress can be adaptive. It can make you sharper, help you focus and it can even improve your performance. But too much of it can tax cells to the point where they can no longer cope and slowly self-destruct. Scientists at Rockefeller University now show that when the protein-making factory of the cell is exposed to moderate stress, neurons in the fruit fly retina and other cells not only resist death but also shore up their defenses against damaging free radicals and ultraviolet radiation.
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Predictive model created for AMD, according to researchers

April 28, 2009 -- A formula created by researchers at Tufts Medical Center will predict how likely it is for individuals with certain genetic profiles and lifestyle behaviors to develop advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Six genotypes that either increase or decrease the risk for AMD were evaluated. Age, sex, and education as well as smoking status and higher body mass index were incorporated, which increase risk of AMD, and supplemented with a high-dose formulation of antioxidants and zinc, which delays progression of the disease.
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Success Found In Treating Rare Retinal Disorder

April 20, 2009 -- Patients with a rare, blinding eye disease saw their vision improve after treatment with drugs to suppress their immune systems, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center. Because autoimmune retinopathy (AIR) is difficult to diagnose, the biggest challenge now is to find biologic markers that identify patients who can benefit from treatment. In a review of 30 patients with autoimmune retinopathy, 21 individuals showed improvement after receiving treatment with immunosuppression therapy. The study, reported in the April issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, is the largest review of AIR cases to date.
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New Therapies Expected To Help Reduce Future Visual Burden Of Age-related Eye Disease

April 19, 2009 -- The prevalence of the eye disease age-related macular degeneration is projected to increase substantially by 2050, but the use of new therapies is expected to help mitigate its effects on vision, according to results of simulation modeling reported in the April issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) occurs when the macula, the area of the eye's retina responsible for sharp vision, begins to deteriorate. In 2000, as many as 1.75 million Americans reached the advanced, vision-threatening stages of AMD, according to background information in the article.
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Growth Factor TGF-B Helps Maintain Health Of Retinal Blood Vessels

April 16, 2009 -- Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute have found that the growth factor known as TGF-B is essential to the health of blood vessels in the retina and that blocking it can cause retinal dysfunction. These findings, published in the April 2 issue of PLoS ONE, may have an important impact on the prevention and treatment of diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration. "These results are significant because they add to our understanding of the molecules that help to maintain blood vessels in a healthy state," says Patricia D'Amore, PhD, senior scientist at Schepens and principal investigator of the study, who adds that this information may be useful in understanding the changes that occur in the retinal microvasculature prior to the development of proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
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How The Retina Works: Like A Multi-layered Jigsaw Puzzle Of Receptive Fields

April 7, 2009 -- About 1.25 million neurons in the retina -- each of which views the world only through a small jagged window called a receptive field -- collectively form the seamless picture we rely on to navigate our environment. Receptive fields fit together like pieces of a puzzle, preventing "blind spots" and excessive overlap that could blur our perception of the world, according to researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In the April 7 issue of the journal PLOS Biology, the scientists say their findings suggest that the nervous system operates with higher precision than previously appreciated and that apparent irregularities in individual cells may actually be coordinated and finely tuned to make the most of the world around us.
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3-D Snapshots Of Eyes Reveal Details Of Age-related Blindness

March 27, 2009 -- To get a better look at the abnormalities that cause age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss in Americans and Europeans over 50, the research groups of James Fujimoto at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and collaborators Jay Duker of the Tufts University School of Medicine, and Joel Schuman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have created ultra-detailed 3-D images of the eyes of more than 2,000 people from different ethnic groups, 400 of whom have AMD. Selected electronic data, published in Optics Express, may pave the way for new diagnostic software useful for developing new treatments. AMD is a condition in which the macula -- the region of highest visual acuity in the retina -- stops functioning properly. AMD causes blurred vision and, in advanced cases, a large blind spot in the center of one’s vision.
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Shining Light On Diabetes-related Blindness

March 16, 2009 -- A group of scientists in California is trying to develop a cheaper, less invasive way to spot the early stages of retinal damage from diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in American adults, before it leads to blindness. As described in the special Interactive Science Publishing (ISP) issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal, the scientists are using beams of light to measure blood flow in the back of the eye. "The more severe the retinopathy, the lower the blood flow to the retina," says David Huang of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. This observation may lead to better ways to diagnose the condition early.
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Critical Switch In Eye Development Discovered

March 15, 2009 -- Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Washington University School of Medicine have identified a key to eye development — a protein that regulates how the light-sensing nerve cells in the retina form. While still far from the clinic, the latest results, published in the Jan. 29 issue of Neuron, could help scientists better understand how nerve cells develop. "We've found a protein that seems to serve as a general switch for photoreceptor cell development," says Seth Blackshaw, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins. "This protein coordinates the activity of multiple proteins, acting like a conductor of an orchestra, instructing some factors to be more active and silencing others, and thus contributing to the development of light-sensitive cells of the eye."
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What Drives Brain Changes In Macular Degeneration?

March 13, 2009 -- In macular degeneration, the most common form of adult blindness, patients progressively lose vision in the center of their visual field, thereby depriving the corresponding part of the visual cortex of input. Previously, researchers discovered that the deprived neurons begin responding to visual input from another spot on the retina — evidence of plasticity in the adult cortex. Just how such plasticity occurred was unknown, but a new MIT study sheds light on the underlying neural mechanism. "This study shows us one way that the brain changes when its inputs change. Neurons seem to 'want' to receive input: when their usual input disappears, they start responding to the next best thing," said Nancy Kanwisher of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and senior author of the study appearing in the March 4 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
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Inflammatory Factors And Diabetic Macular Edema

March 9, 2009 -- With a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicting that diabetic retinopathy will triple from 5.5 million in 2005 to 16 million in 2050, improved treatments are urgently needed for this leading cause of blindness in working-age people. The CDC study is the latest indicator of a world-wide diabetes epidemic that is motivating ophthalmic research around the globe. Hideharu Funatsu, MD, and colleagues at the Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan, focused on diabetic macular edema (DME) a serious complication of retinopathy. Their findings on inflammatory factors associated with DME are presented in this month's Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
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Diet Could Reduce Onset Of Eye Disease By 20%, Expert Says

February 18, 2009 -- University of Liverpool scientists claim that the degeneration of sight, caused by a common eye disease, could be reduced by up to 20% by increasing the amount of fruit, vegetables and nuts in the diet. Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the UK, with 45% of those registered as blind suffering from the disease. The condition results in a gradual loss of central vision, due to the failure of cells in the macular – the light sensitive membrane at the centre of the retina. There is currently no cure for the more common ‘dry’ form of the disease, which is suffered by 90% of AMD patients.
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Vision Explained: Scientists Finally Capture Elusive Signaling Device Our Retinas Use To Tell Us What We See

February 2, 2009 -- Scientists have known for more than 200 years that vision begins with a series of chemical reactions when light strikes the retina, but the specific chemical processes have largely been a mystery. A team of researchers from the United States and Switzerland have shed new light on this process by "capturing" this chemical communication for future study. This research may lead to the development of new treatments for some forms of blindness and vision disorders.
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Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) Examines Macular Degeneration Risk Related To Cataract Surgery

February 2, 2009 -- Does cataract surgery increase the risk of vision loss in people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD)? This question is explored in the February issue of Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cataract are leading causes of visual impairment in the United States. Both are related to aging, and they share other risk factors, but it has been unclear whether a direct causal link might be involved. Several large epidemiological studies had raised concern that cataract surgery might accelerate AMD progress and threaten vision. To address this concern, Emily Y. Chew, MD, of the National Eye Institute, and colleagues analyzed data for a cohort of participants in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS). This cohort is the only large prospective study in which the severity of AMD was documented before and after cataract surgery and which included more than five years of in-depth participant follow-up.
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New Approaches Make Retinal Detachment Highly Treatable

November 26, 2008 -- Retinal detachment, a condition that afflicts about 10,000 Americans each year, puts an individual at risk for vision loss or blindness. In a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, a leading ophthalmologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center writes, however, that a high probability of reattachment and visual improvement is possible by using one of three currently available surgical techniques. "Although no randomized trials have been conducted that show definitively that one procedure is best for every situation, improvements in these surgical techniques have led to effective treatments for most patients," says Dr. Donald J. D'Amico.
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Brain Reorganizes To Adjust For Loss Of Vision

November 21, 2008 -- A new study from Georgia Tech shows that when patients with macular degeneration focus on using another part of their retina to compensate for their loss of central vision, their brain seems to compensate by reorganizing its neural connections. Age–related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. The study appears in the December edition of the journal Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience. “Our results show that the patient’s behavior may be critical to get the brain to reorganize in response to disease,” said Eric Schumacher, assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Psychology. “It’s not enough to lose input to a brain region for that region to reorganize; the change in the patient’s behavior also matters.”
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Pluripotent Stem Cells Shown To Generate New Retinal Cells Necessary For Vision, Study Finds

November 21, 2008 -- Pluripotent stem cells — those, like embryonic stem cells, that give rise to almost every type of cell in the body — can be converted into the different classes of retinal cells necessary for vision, according to a new study from researchers at SUNY Upstate Medical University. This research points to exciting new possibilities for preventing or reversing the disabling vision loss caused by age-related macular degeneration, diabetes retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, and other diseases that damage the retina, the layer of light-sensitive nerve cells that line the back of the eye. The research was presented at Neuroscience 2008, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C.
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Visual Impairment: Promising Treatment For Anti-VEGF And Retinopathy Of Prematurity Described

November 11, 2008 -- The scientific program of the 2008 Joint Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (Academy) and European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE) in Atlanta for November 11 includes a clinical study of a promising new treatment for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). ROP is often difficult to resolve using current treatments and can result in permanent, severe visual impairment in premature infants when treatment is unsuccessful. ROP encompasses a series of damaging changes in the retina, the area at the back of the eye that relays images to the brain's visual center. These changes may occur because the retina of a baby born before term has not had time to fully develop.
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Anti-VEGF Drugs For Retinal Diseases Could Have Serious Side Effects, Scientists Caution

November 5, 2008 -- Scientists at Schepens Eye Research Institute have found that reducing the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is best known as a stimulator of new blood vessel growth, in adult mice causes the death of photoreceptors and Muller glia - cells of the retina that are essential to visual function. This finding holds implications for the chronic use of promising new anti-VEGF drugs such as Lucentis, which eliminate abnormal and damaging blood vessel growth and leakage in the retina by neutralizing VEGF.
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Risk Factors For Retinopathy In Persons With Type 1 Diabetes

November 3, 2008 -- Many people who have Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes develop retinopathy, a serious disorder that damages the eye's retina, the area of the back of the eye where images are focused and relayed to the brain's visual cortex. Ophthalmologists (Eye M.D.s) monitor their diabetic patients for signs of retinopathy and use lifestyle recommendations, medications, and surgical approaches as appropriate to reduce the risk that diabetic retinopathy (DR) will progress to the proliferative stage (PDR), in which abnormal blood vessel growth leads to visual impairment.
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What Might Declining Night Vision Mean for AMD Patients?

November 3, 2008 -- The Complications of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Prevention Trial (CAPT) Research Group assessed night vision in a cohort of 1,052 CAPT patients. The main purpose of CAPT, a National Eye Institute-sponsored multicenter randomized clinical trial conducted from 1999 to 2005, was to investigate whether low-intensity laser treatment could prevent vision loss in patients with early stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
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Vision Loss More Common In People With Diabetes

October 14, 2008 -- Visual impairment appears to be more common in people with diabetes than in those without the disease, according to a new report. Approximately 14.6 million Americans had diagnosed diabetes mellitus in 2005 and another 6.2 million had undiagnosed diabetes, according to background information in the article. It is estimated that the number of individuals with diagnosed diabetes will increase to 48.3 million by 2050. "Diabetic retinopathy [damage to the retina caused by diabetes], one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes, is considered to be one of the major causes of blindness and low vision," the authors write.
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Longtime Visual Puzzler Explained In New Way

October 14, 2008 -- A team of neuroscientists at Duke University Medical Center has suggested an entirely new way to explain a puzzling visual phenomenon called the flash-lag effect. Experts have debated for the past 100 years about why -- when a flash of light is presented in alignment with a moving object -- the flash is perceived to lag behind the position of the object. "The point of this paper was to present a completely different way of thinking about how this effect can and should be explained," said Dale Purves, M.D., professor of neurobiology and director of the Duke Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. "We decided to look at the effect empirically, based on another visual problem, called the inverse optics problem, which is that the image on your retina can't be directly, logically related to what is happening in the world."
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Sunlight Exposure Plus Low Antioxidant Levels May Place Older Adults At Risk For Eye Disease

October 13, 2008 -- People who lack essential antioxidants, and who have high levels of sunlight exposure, have a higher risk of developing advanced macular degeneration (AMD), according to a study published today in the journal Archives of Ophthalmology. AMD is the leading cause of poor vision in the UK. The EUREYE study, led by Astrid Fletcher, Professor of Epidemiology of Ageing at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, is the first to report in human populations an adverse association between sunlight exposure and AMD in people with low levels of antioxidants.
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Age-related Macular Degeneration: New Genetic Association Identified

October 13, 2008 -- A team of clinicians and scientists at the University of Southampton has identified a major new genetic association with age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in developed countries. Their research adds to the growing understanding of the genetics of age-related macular degeneration and they believe it will better help predict those at risk and ultimately lead to better treatments. The team, including Professor Andrew Lotery and his research group in the University's Clinical Neurosciences Division, together with Dr Sarah Ennis and Professor Andy Collins from the Genetic Epidemiology and Bioinformatics Group in the University's Human Genetics Division, found an association with the SERPING1 gene, which is involved in production of proteins for the 'complement' system within the eye, which helps clear foreign material and infection.
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Drug Candidate Slows Age-related Macular Degeneration

October 9, 2008 -- Research results from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine show that the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is markedly slowed in new laboratory-engineered mice when they received treatments of retinylamine, a trial drug that has been tested in a medical school lab. AMD is a leading cause of vision loss in Americans 60 years of age and older.
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Wet AMD 18-month data unveiled

October 9, 2008 -- The 18-month data of a proprietary epiretinal brachytherapy (NeoVista) for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) were made public at the recent Retina Society annual meeting. The study, which was initiated to test the safety and efficacy of the therapy when used in conjunction with bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech), showed a marked advancement in mean visual acuity results at month 18; a limited number of patients required additional injections of bevacizumab, according to the company.
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Key Mechanism Regulating Neural Stem Cell Development Uncovered

October 8, 2008 -- The 18-month data of a proprietary epiretinal brachytherapy (NeoVista) for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) were made public at the recent Retina Society annual meeting. The study, which was initiated to test the safety and efficacy of the therapy when used in conjunction with bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech), showed a marked advancement in mean visual acuity results at month 18; a limited number of patients required additional injections of bevacizumab, according to the company.
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Genetic Finding Implicates Innate Immune System In Major Cause Of Blindness

October 7, 2008 -- The research, published recently in the Lancet, adds to the growing understanding of the genetics of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which the researchers believe should ultimately lead to novel treatments for the disease. Almost two-thirds of people aged 80 years or older are affected by AMD to some degree, with more than one in ten left blind by the disease. In the UK, the annual economic burden from the disease has been estimated to be as high as £80 million, a figure set to increase as our ageing population expands. The total yearly costs of health-care usage are seven times higher for patients with AMD than for those unaffected.
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Receptor Could Halt Blinding Diseases, Stop Tumor Growth, Preserve Neurons After Trauma

October 7, 2008 -- An international team of researchers has discovered what promises to be the on-off switch behind several major diseases. In the advance online edition of Nature Medicine, scientists from Sainte-Justine Hospital Research Center, the Université de Montréal and the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM) in France report how the GPR91 receptor contributes to activate unchecked vascular growth that causes vision loss in common blinding diseases. These findings could also have wide-ranging and positive implications for brain tissue regeneration.
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Beyond anti-VEGF: Investigative drugs, approaches abound

October 1, 2008 -- New investigative drugs for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) may complement the anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents, improve the visual results, and require fewer injections. Various routes of administration are under investigation, and combination treatments are likely to provide more favorable results, said Lawrence J. Singerman, MD, during retina subspecialty day at the World Ophthalmology Congress. In the past two decades, much progress has been made in the treatment of AMD, especially with the introduction of anti-VEGF therapies, said Dr. Singerman, clinical professor of ophthalmology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, and voluntary professor of clinical ophthalmology, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. These drugs allow some patients to have improved vision in the presence of AMD.
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First Model For Retina Receptors Created

October 1, 2008 -- A team of scientists at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center has created the first genetic research model for a microscopic part of the eye that when missing causes blindness. The team led by OU scientists at Dean McGee Eye Institute also includes researchers from Harvard Medical School. The group is studying how diabetes and insulin receptors affect the eye, and in many cases cause blindness. In diabetes, the insulin receptors malfunction and scientists have yet to figure out why. "Our hope is to test drug compounds and therapeutic agents to see if they can prolong the life of the receptor cells and either delay or prevent blindness. Therapies could include a pill or gene therapy to activate the malfunctioning receptor," said Raju Rajala, Ph.D., principal investigator on the project.
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Looking Vs. Seeing

September 23, 2008 -- The superior colliculus has long been thought of as a rapid orienting center of the brain that allows the eyes and head to turn swiftly either toward or away from the sights and sounds in our environment. Now a team of scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has shown that the superior colliculus does more than send out motor control commands to eye and neck muscles. Two complementary studies, both led by Richard Krauzlis, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Systems Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk Institute, have revealed that the superior colliculus performs supervisory functions in addition to the motor control it has long been known for. The results are published in the Aug. 6 and Sept. 17 issues of the Journal of Neuroscience.
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Receptor Activation Protects Retina From Diabetes Destruction

September 21, 2008 -- Diabetes can make the beautifully stratified retina look like over-fried bacon. A drug known for it pain-relieving power and believed to stimulate memory appears to prevent this retinal damage that leads to vision loss, researchers say. "The effects of this drug on retinal health are phenomenal," says Dr. Sylvia Smith, retinal cell biologist and co-director of the Vision Discovery Institute in the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine. She's comparing retinal images from a diabetic mouse model treated with (+)- pentazocine to one that wasn't. Even to the untrained eye, the differences are dramatic.
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Watch And Learn: Time Teaches Us How To Recognize Visual Objects

September 17, 2008 -- In work that could aid efforts to develop more brain-like computer vision systems, MIT neuroscientists have tricked the visual brain into confusing one object with another, thereby demonstrating that time teaches us how to recognize objects. It may sound strange, but human eyes never see the same image twice. An object such as a cat can produce innumerable impressions on the retina, depending on the direction of gaze, angle of view, distance and so forth. Every time our eyes move, the pattern of neural activity changes, yet our perception of the cat remains stable.
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Gene Therapy For Blindness Improves Vision, Safety Study Indicates

September 9, 2008 -- All three people who received gene therapy at the University of Florida to treat a rare, incurable form of blindness have regained some of their vision, according to a paper published online today in Human Gene Therapy. The patients — one woman and two men ranging from 21 to 24 years old with a type of hereditary blindness called Leber congenital amaurosis type 2 — volunteered to test the safety of an experimental gene-transfer technique in a phase 1 clinical research study conducted by UF and the University of Pennsylvania with support from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
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Receptor Activation Protects Retina From Diabetes Destruction

September 9, 2008 -- Diabetes can make the beautifully stratified retina look like over-fried bacon. A drug known for it pain-relieving power and believed to stimulate memory appears to prevent this retinal damage that leads to vision loss, researchers say. "The effects of this drug on retinal health are phenomenal," says Dr. Sylvia Smith, retinal cell biologist and co-director of the Vision Discovery Institute in the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine.
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Eyeball Reflexes: Security and Biometrics That Cannot Be Spoofed

September 4, 2008 -- Electronic fingerprinting, iris scans, and signature recognition software are all becoming commonplace biometrics for user authentication and security. However, they all suffer from one major drawback - they can be spoofed by a sufficiently sophisticated intruder. Writing in the International Journal of Biometrics, Japanese researchers describe a new approach based on a person's reflexes that could never be copied, forged, or spoofed. Masakatsu Nishigaki and Daisuke Arai of Shizuoka University, Japan, explain how the use of biometrics for user authentication is becoming increasingly widespread. "Biometrics makes it possible to authenticate a person accurately," they say.
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Doctors Performing Heart Surgery Face Risks To Eyes

August 29, 2008 -- Patients are not the only ones at risk during cardiac procedures. Doctors performing heart surgery also face health risks, namely to their eyes. The IAEA is helping to raise awareness of threats, through training in radiation protection related to medical uses of X-ray imaging systems. The issue of radiation protection for medical personnel is particularly acute in the case of lengthy angioplasty and other cardiac interventions performed under X-ray fluoroscopic guidance. The procedure can cause extensive radiation exposure to cardiologists that could lead to cataracts, alongside other longer term health risks. Fluoroscopy provides X-ray images of a patient that physicians can view on a display screen or monitor in real time.
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First Gene Associated With Dry Macular Degeneration Found

August 28, 2008 -- In a study that underscores the important role that individual genetic profiles will play in the development of new therapies for disease, a multi-institutional research team – led by Kang Zhang, MD, PhD professor of ophthalmology and human genetics at Shiley Eye Center at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine – has made two important discoveries related to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in adults over the age of 60.
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How Diet, Antioxidants Prevent Blindness In Aging Population

August 27, 2008 -- A new study reveals part of the magic behind a diet rich in antioxidants, showing how artichokes, blueberries and pecans can hold at bay the leading cause of age-related blindness in developed countries. Researchers at Brigham Young University and Weill Medical College of Cornell University discovered a link between two processes in the retina that, in combination, contribute to a disease called macular degeneration. They found antioxidants disrupt the link and extend the lifetime of irreplaceable photoreceptors and other retinal cells.
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Medication Slows Progression Of Myopia In Children

August 27, 2008 -- Daily treatment with a medication called pirenzepine can slow the rate of progressive myopia, or nearsightedness, in children, reports a study in the August issue of the Journal of AAPOS (American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus). Led by Dr. R. Michael Stiatkowski of Dean McGee Eye Institute/University of Oklahoma Department of Ophthalmology, the researchers evaluated the effects of pirenzepine in children with myopia. Myopia—sometimes called nearsightedness—is a condition in which focus on near objects is good, but distant objects appear blurry. Caused by a problem with the length of the eyeball or the curvature of the cornea, myopia gets worse over time in many children.
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Virtual Reality Goggles Create An Equal Opportunity Eye Test

August 13, 2008 -- Visual field tests are widely used by eye doctors and neurologists. By determining the health of the retina, optic nerve and the visual pathway throughout the brain, the test can uncover glaucoma and conditions such as optic neuritis or brain damage. Essential to undergo before one can drive a car or fly a plane, the visual field test is also used to pinpoint neurological damage after an accident or surgery
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Trigger For Brain Plasticity Identified: Signal Comes, Surprisingly, From Outside The Brain

August 9, 2008 -- Researchers have long sought a factor that can trigger the brain's ability to learn – and perhaps recapture the "sponge-like" quality of childhood. In the August 8 issue of the journal Cell, neuroscientists at Children's Hospital Boston report that they've identified such a factor, a protein called Otx 2. Otx2 helps a key type of cell in the cortex to mature, initiating a critical period -- a window of heightened brain plasticity, when the brain can readily make new connections. The work was done in a mouse model of the visual system, a classic model for understanding how the brain sets up its wiring in response to input from the outside world. But Takao Hensch, PhD, of the Neurobiology Program and Department of Neurology at Children's, the study's senior investigator, speculates that there may be similar factors from the auditory, olfactory and other sensory systems that help time critical periods. Timing is important, because the brain needs to rewire itself at the right moment -- when it's getting the optimal sensory input.
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Outdoor Activity And Nearsightedness In Children

August 1, 2008 -- A growing number of the world's children are mildly to severely nearsighted (myopic), with rates especially high among urbanized East Asians. In addition to coping with poor distance vision, children with severe myopia are more prone to visual impairment and blindness later in life. Although genetic inheritance plays a role, the rapid rise of myopia suggests that environmental factors are driving the trend. Myopia usually begins and progresses during children's school years, but research on the role of intensive reading or other "near work" has determined that this is a minor factor. A new study led by Kathryn A. Rose, MD, used data from the Sydney Myopia Study of more than 4,000 Australian school children to assess whether outdoor activity might be significant in controlling myopia.
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Blindness In Old Age May Be Triggered By Hyperactive Immune Resistance

July 25, 2008 -- Age-dependent macular degeneration (AMD) is the commonest cause of blindness in the western industrialised nations. Hereditary changes in the regulation of the immune system influence the risk of contracting AMD. Opthalmologists at the University Clinic in Bonn, working in co-operation with researchers from Göttingen, Regensburg and Great Britain, have now, for the first time, demonstrated that in cases of senile blindness the patient´s immune resistance is hyperactive throughout his entire body.
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Protein Transports Nutrients Believed To Protect Against Eye Disease

July 18, 2008 -- Scientists have identified the protein responsible for transporting nutrients to the eye that are believed to protect against the development of age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss in elderly Americans. The research sought to illuminate the process by which compounds called lutein and zeaxanthin move from the bloodstream to the eye. Various studies have suggested that high concentrations of these two dietary compounds in particular, known as xanthophylls, have properties that can prevent macular degeneration.
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'Snapshots' Of Eyes Could Serve As Early Warning Of Diabetes

July 18, 2008 -- A new vision screening device, already shown to give an early warning of eye disease, could give doctors and patients a head start on treating diabetes and its vision complications, a new study shows. The instrument, invented by two scientists at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, captures images of the eye to detect metabolic stress and tissue damage that occur before the first symptoms of disease are evident.
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Retina Transplants Show Promise In Patients With Retinal Degeneration

July 11, 2008 -- Preliminary research shows encouraging results with transplantation of retinal cells in patients with blindness caused by retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to a new report. In the FDA-monitored study, Dr. Norman D. Radtke of University of Louisville, Ky., lead author of the study and colleagues performed the experimental transplant procedure in ten patients with vision loss resulting from retinal degeneration: six patients with RP and four with the "dry" form of AMD. Although they have different causes, both RP and AMD lead to destruction of the light-receiving (photoreceptor) cells of the retina. There is currently no effective treatment for recovery of visual loss from either condition.
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Update: surgical therapy for retinal venous occlusive disease - Best results achieved by combining peeling of internal limiting

July 1, 2008 -- Macular edema is the main cause of decreased vision in retinal venous occlusive disease. The goals of current treatment are to perfuse the thrombosed vein to obtain drainage of the retinal circulation, reduce the permeability of the macula, and increase the vitreoretinal fluid exchange. Three studies have shown improved retinal blood flow using scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) angiography. Dr. Garcia-Arumi and his colleagues have used an injection of rt-PA and sheathotomy in 40 patients and had a mean improvement in vision from 20/100 to 20/40. Generally, patients who underwent surgery had better outcomes. Those who received triamcinolone initially had good outcomes, but the efficacy of the drug decreased over time.
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Neuroscientists Show Insulin Receptor Signaling Regulates Structure Of Brain Circuits

June 23, 2008 -- A team of neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has demonstrated for the first time in living animals that insulin receptors in the brain can initiate signaling that regulates both the structure and function of neural circuits. The finding suggests a significant role for this class of receptors and perhaps for insulin, not only in brain development, but also in cognition and in pathological processes in which cognition is impaired, as in Alzheimer’s disease, for example.
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Surgery may help improve visual acuity when anti-VEGF drugs are not effective

June 15, 2008 -- Surgical therapy for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) provides some improvements in visual acuity (VA) for patients whose conditions do not respond to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs, according to Claus Eckardt, MD, professor of ophthalmology, Staedtische Kliniken Frankfurt am Main-Hoechst, Frankfurt, Germany.
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Model predicts advanced AMD development

June 15, 2008 -- A new model based on well-established risk factors for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can predict the percentage of people who will develop advanced AMD at various ages. The model considers high-risk, intermediate-risk, and low-risk genotypes. Investigators found that the genotypes of only two AMD genes are more predictive of the risk of developing advanced AMD than age.
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Diabetes Medication Associated With Slower Progression Of Retina Disease

June 12, 2008 -- Patients with diabetes who take the medication rosiglitazone may be less likely to develop the eye disease proliferative diabetic retinopathy or to experience reductions in visual acuity (sharpness), according to a new report.
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Eating Fish And Foods With Omega-3 Fatty Acids Linked To Lower Risk Of Age-related Eye Disease

June 11, 2008 -- Eating fish and other foods high in omega-3 fatty acids is associated with reduced risk of the eye disease age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to a meta-analysis of nine previously published studies.
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Circadian Math: 1 Plus 1 Doesn't Always Equal 2

June 9, 2008 -- Like a wristwatch that needs to be wound daily for accurate time-telling, the human circadian system — the biological cycles that repeat approximately every 24 hours — requires daily light exposure to the eye’s retina to remain synchronized with the solar day.
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Wireless Vision Implant: Implantable Prosthesis Lets Patients Perceive Visual Images

June 2, 2008 -- About 30 million people around the world have grown legally blind due to retinal diseases. The EPI-RET project has sought for a technical solution for the past twelve years to help these patients. This work has resulted in a unique system – a fully implantable visual prosthesis.
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Anti-HIV Drugs Reduce The Cause Of Some Forms Of Vision Loss

May 25, 2008 -- A potential new therapeutic use for anti-HIV drugs known as protease inhibitors has been suggested by a team of researchers from Harvard Medical School, Boston, and Inserm U848, France, as a result of their work in a mouse model of retinal detachment.
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Modeling How We See Natural Scenes

May 22, 2008 -- Sophisticated mathematical modeling methods and a "CatCam" that captures feline-centric video of a forest are two elements of a new effort to explain how the brain's visual circuitry processes real scenes. The new model of the neural responses of a major visual-processing brain region promises to significantly advance understanding of vision.
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New Drug Reduces One Cause Of Vision Loss

May 19, 2008 -- In the industrialized world, most diseases that cause vision loss do so by altering the permeability of the blood vessels in the retina of the eye such that fluid accumulates in the retina impairing eyesight. For many of these diseases, the molecule VEGF is the initiator of increased blood vessel permeability and recent clinical data have indicated that VEGF antagonists can stabilize, or even improve, the eyesight of some patients.
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Retinal vein occlusion risk may be increased by high blood pressure and cholesterol, say researchers

DUBLIN, May 14, 2008 -- High blood pressure and high cholesterol may be connected to an increased risk of retinal vein occlusion, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons. Pooling data from 21 previously published studies involving 2,916 individuals with retinal vein occlusion and 28,646 participants without the condition, 63.6 % had hypertension compared with 36.2% of the controls.
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Identifying Abnormal Protein Levels In Diabetic Retinopathy

May 13, 2008 -- Researchers in Massachusetts are reporting an advance in bridging huge gaps in medical knowledge about the biochemical changes that occur inside the eyes of individuals with diabetic retinopathy (DR) -- a leading cause of vision loss and blindness in adults. They report discovery of 37 proteins that were increased or decreased in the eyes of patients with DR compared to patients without the disease.
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Gene Linked To Severe Diabetic Eye And Kidney Diseases Identified

May 7, 2008 -- Researchers at the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah and collaborative institutions have identified a gene called erythropoietin (EPO) that contributes to increased risk of severe diabetic eye and kidney diseases, called retinopathy and nephropathy. The sight-threatening form of diabetic retinopathy, termed proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), is the most common cause of legal blindness in working-aged adults in the United States, accounting for 10% of new onset blindness overall.
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Gene Therapy Improves Vision In Nearly Blind Patients

April 28, 2008 -- In a clinical trial at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, researchers from The University of Pennsylvania have used gene therapy to safely restore vision in three young adults with a rare form of congenital blindness. Although the patients have not achieved normal eyesight, the preliminary results set the stage for further studies of an innovative treatment for this and possibly other retinal diseases.
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Researchers Identify New Class Of Photoreceptors, Pointing To New Ways Sights And Smells Are Regulated

April 22, 2008 -- The identification of a new class of photoreceptors in the retina of fruit flies sheds light on the regulation of the pigments of the eye that confer color vision, researchers at New York University's Center for Developmental Genetics report in a new study appearing in the Public Library of Science's journal, PloS Biology. The findings, they write, may also have implications for the regulating of olfactory receptors, which are responsible for the detection of smells, because both types of receptors belong to the same protein family.
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Postmenopausal hormones reduce risk of advanced age-related macular degeneration

BOSTON, April 15, 2008 -- Postmenopausal hormones taken by women actually may decrease the risk of developing advanced stages of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), especially if women took oral contraceptives previously, according to a report in the April issue of Archives of Ophthalmology. "Although genetics plays a key role in susceptibility to AMD, environmental factors, such as smoking, are also important," the authors wrote. "Evidence of higher rates of AMD in women than in men and links between AMD and cardiovascular disease suggested a role for estrogen in the etiology" or development of the condition.
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Retinas can regenerate, according to study

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2008 -- A new study suggests that the eye's own resources can regenerate damaged retinas instead of transplanting outside retinal tissue or stem cells. According to researchers, a chemical in the eye can trigger the dormant capacity of certain non-neuronal cells to transform into progenitor cells, a stem cell-like cell that can generate new retina cells.
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Degenerative Eye Disease More Than Doubles Heart Attack And Stroke Risk

March 1, 2008 -- The progressive eye disease, age related macular degeneration, or AMD for short, doubles the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke, reveals research published ahead of print in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. AMD affects the centre of the retina (macula) at the back of the eye, which is used for fine central vision tasks, such as reading and driving. AMD is most common in the elderly, among whom it is a major cause of untreatable blindness in developed countries.
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Protein Found That Helps Nerve Cells Cheat Death Without Unwanted Side Effects

February 13, 2008 -- The prototypical member of the VEGF family of proteins, VEGF, has recently been shown to protect cells in the nervous system from death and degeneration. However, its clinical utility in this regard is limited, because it also induces blood vessel growth, a process known as angiogenesis. In a new study, Xuri Li and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, have revealed that the VEGF family member VEGF-B acts as a potent inhibitor of murine retinal cell death while exerting minimal angiogenic effects.
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Smoking Related To Long-term Risk And Progression Of Age-related Eye Disease

January 15, 2008 -- Smokers appear to have an increased long-term risk and greater progression of the eye disease age-related macular degeneration, according to a new article. Smoking had already been identified as one of the few modifiable risk factors for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss in older Americans, according to background information in the article. Smoking may contribute to AMD through several pathways, including by reducing antioxidant levels, decreasing blood flow around the eye or affecting the pigments (coloration) in the retina.
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Specific Cell That Causes Eye Cancer Identified, Disproving Long-held Theory

October 21, 2007 -- Investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have identified the cell that gives rise to the eye cancer retinoblastoma, disproving a long-standing principle of nerve growth and development. The finding suggests for the first time that it may one day be possible for scientists to induce fully developed neurons to multiply and coax the injured brain to repair itself. A report of this work appears in the Oct. 19 issue of the journal "Cell." Michael Dyer, Ph.D., an associate member in the St. Jude Department of Developmental Neurobiology, is the report's senior author.
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Shape Encoding May Start In The Retina

September 16, 2007 -- New evidence from the University of Southern California suggests that there may be dedicated cells in the retina that help compile small bits of information in order to recognize objects. The research was conducted by Ernest Greene, professor of psychology in the area of brain and cognitive sciences at USC. It is well established that the images the observer sees are divided in half as they are sent to the two hemispheres of the brain. When a person looks at the center of an object, the image from the right half of the object will be sent to one hemisphere of the brain and the image of the left half is sent to the other. This is true whether a person uses one eye or two to look at the object.
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Fish Eyes Could Hold Clue To Repairing Damaged Retinas In Humans

August 2, 2007 -- A special type of cell found in the eye has been found to be very important in regenerating the retina in zebrafish and restoring vision even after extensive damage. Now, a UK team of scientists believe they may be able to use these cells -- known as Müller glial cells -- to regenerate damaged retina in humans, according to a study published this month in the journal Stem Cells.
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