In a joint research study with Osaka University and Rohto Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a research team at the Keio University School of Medicine has confirmed that crocetin can significantly suppress myopia by slowing axial length (AL) elongation in children. The study was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial where 69 elementary school students were treated with crocetin, a natural carotenoid derived from gardenia. The Keio University team included Professor Kazuo Tsubota, Project Associate Professor Toshihide Kurihara, Instructor Hidemasa Torii, and Instructor Kiwako Mori of the Department of Ophthalmology. The Osaka University team included Professor Kohji Nishida, Endowed Associate Professor Shizuka Koh, and fourth-year doctoral candidate Satoko Fujimoto of the Department of Ophthalmology, Graduate School of Medicine.
These new findings show that crocetin can inhibit myopia progression in humans and follow previous studies that showed the same effect in mice. The study confirmed the treatment’s effectiveness when used during childhood, the time when AL increases the most. This shows that the administration of crocetin can prevent childhood myopia, which could greatly reduce the number of cases that progress to high myopia in the future.
The results of this study were published on August 7 in the multidisciplinary online journal Journal of Clinical Medicine.
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Crocetin May Have Suppressive Effect on Myopia Progression in Children ―A New Approach as Prevalence of Myopia Increases―