Genetic Differences That Cause Childhood Eye Disease

piggy submitted, created time 2 weeks 2 days (www.sciencedaily.com)

ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2008) — Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have unlocked part of the mystery underlying a childhood eye disease. New research shows how children with some types of glaucoma end up with missing or extra pieces of DNA.

The missing or extra bits of DNA are called copy number variations (CNVs). The U of A research team had previously shown how they play a major role in causing some types of pediatric glaucoma – a disease that can lead to blindness

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Gene Therapy Offers Hope for Blindness

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 5 days (www.webmd.com)

After more than a decade of research, the first gene therapy trials in people with a rare form of blindness are under way, and experts say they are thrilled with the early findings.

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Retinal transplants bear threefold fruit

Darkfrog submitted, created time 2 months 1 week (www.nature.com)

A formerly clinically blind woman's vision improved from 20/800 to 20/160--from one-fortieth of ordinary vision to one-eighth--after receiving donated retina. Six months after the operation, the started noticing the pendulum in her grandfather clock. For years, she found that she could read large-print books and emails and returned to her hobbies, knitting and sewing. Now, six years after her operation, her vision is fading, but it is still better than it was before the operation

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Gene therapy experiments improve vision in nearly blind

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 2 weeks (www.newsvine.com)

Scientists for the first time have used gene therapy to dramatically improve sight in people with a rare form of blindness, a development experts called a major advance for the experimental technique. Four of the six patients regained some vision.

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Algal protein causes blind mice to react to light

Darkfrog submitted, created time 6 months 3 weeks (www.nature.com)

Blind mice have been made to react to light in the lab. Scientists have used a protein found in algae to make little systems that react to light. When properly attached, these proteins can switch neurons on and off almost like natural photoreceptors do. It's not too clear how well the mice can actually see, but they can now tell the difference between "lights on" and "lights off." The scientists suppose, too, that the mice can only see in black and white

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Antidepressant may treat lazy eye

The relationship of retinal vascular calibre to diabetes and retinopathy: the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) study

jane2007 submitted, created time 1 year 1 week (www.springerlink.com)

Diabetes is associated with larger retinal arteriolar calibre and retinopathy with larger retinal venular calibre. The contrasting associations may reflect different underlying pathophysiological processes in the natural history of diabetes.

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