What Is Myopia?

Myopia is the most common visual disorder in the world, and it is characterized by refractive errors caused by abnormal eye growth (abnormal axial length, irregular corneal shape, or lens abnormality). Among them, high myopia may also be associated with choroidal atrophy, retinal detachment, glaucoma, and strabismus. Research has shown that the causes of excessive eye length growth include multiple genetic/environmental factors and visual parameters. Therefore, there is an urgent need for suitable animal models to investigate the genetic/environmental causes of myopia and the extent of their influence. Currently, rodents are generally considered the animal model of choice for studying eye diseases such as refractive error. However, most rodents have relatively more rod vision while both humans and zebrafish have relatively more cone-dominant vision. This makes zebrafish has become a popular animal model to study genetic factors of refractive error, as eye biometrics can be easily monitored in zebrafish by spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT).

Fig. 1. Dorsal view of a myopic bugeye mutant. (Gestri G, et al., 2012)

Service Overview

Thanks to a deep understanding of the application of zebrafish in the field of ocular diseases, Ace Therapeutics' ophthalmic pharmacologists set out to explore the potentially useful value of zebrafish as a solution to the mechanism behind myopia.

Myopia is a heterogeneous heritable ocular disease, and its production is associated with a large number of genes. In recent years, Ace Therapeutics has learned the mechanisms of candidate genes that cause myopia in humans through gene-wide association studies, and these genes were found to be mutated or modified at the expression level in myopia. In order to better help our customers advance myopia research, our scientists use zebrafish to identify and define gene networks and loci related to myopia, and also develop a series of validated zebrafish mutation models.

Explore Ace Therapeutics' Zebrafish Models of Myopia

Ace Therapeutics provides a series of myopia models in genetically mutant zebrafish, such as lrp2-mutated zebrafish, Lrpap1-deficient zebrafish, and zlum knockdown zebrafish. These models exhibited a phenotype similar to human myopia, including measurable refractive errors, marked eye enlargement, sclera thinning, and increased diameter of the sclera coating, among others. Our customers have used them to screen drug candidates for controlling myopia and preventing its progression.

In addition to this, our scientists explore a dark rearing-induced zebrafish myopia model that exhibits marked increases in axial length and retinal radius.

Available Support Services

To quickly and accurately measure the axial length and other eye dimensions in zebrafish and conduct longitudinal studies, our researchers use spectral domain optical coherence tomography to measure the following metrics:

• Axial length
• Focal length
• Lens diameter
• Retinal radius

Ace Therapeutics aims to provide a powerful analytical tool to help our global customers explore the mechanism of myopia and screen drug candidates to control myopia and prevent its development. If you are interested in our services or need more detailed information, please feel free to contact us. Our experienced scientists are ready to help you!

References

1. Gestri G, Link BA, Neuhauss SC. The visual system of zebrafish and its use to model human ocular diseases. Dev Neurobiol. 2012, 72(3):302-27.
2. Collery RF, Veth KN, Dubis AM, et al. Rapid, accurate, and non-invasive measurement of zebrafish axial length and other eye dimensions using SD-OCT allows longitudinal analysis of myopia and emmetropization. PLoS One. 2014, 9(10):e110699.

• Customized Zebrafish Models of Cataract
• Customized Zebrafish Models of Glaucoma
• Customized Zebrafish Models of Aniridia
• Customized Zebrafish Models of Corneal Dystrophy
• Customized Zebrafish Models of Cone-Rod Dystrophy
• Customized Zebrafish Models of Choroideremia
• Customized Zebrafish Models of Microphthalmia
• Customized Zebrafish Models of Retinal Vascular Disease
• Customized Zebrafish Models of Retinitis Pigmentosa
• Customized Zebrafish Models of Leber Congenital Amaurosis
• Customized Zebrafish Models of Ocular Infection
• Customized Zebrafish Models of Ocular Defect

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