2022/09/12
Keio University School of Medicine
A research group from the Department of Ophthalmology, Keio University School of Medicine, led by Professor Emeritus Kazuo Tsubota (CEO of Tsubota Laboratory, Inc.), Senior Lecturer Toshihide Kurihara, Yan Zhang (a third-year student in the Doctoral Programs at the Graduate School of Medicine), and Project Assistant Professor Xianyin Ding, has clarified the function of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) derived from the retinal pigment epithelium in relation to axial myopia.
With the rapid increase in the prevalence of myopia, there is growing interest in the factors involved in its onset and the suppression of its progression. Thinning of the choroid, located at the back of the retina, is considered one of the causes of myopia onset. This study reports that a deficiency of VEGF derived from the retinal pigment epithelium causes choroidal thinning, leading to axial elongation and a myopic shift in refractive error.
The results of this study reveal part of the still-unclear mechanism of myopia progression and suggest that the appropriate regulation of VEGF, which is involved in maintaining the choroidal structure, could lead to the development of new therapies to suppress the progression of axial myopia.
The results of this research were published in the interdisciplinary general journal PNAS Nexus on August 24 (GMT).
Please see below for the full press release.