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<DIV>News <SPAN><FONT
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<TD class=contentheading width="100%">Seahorse study may save sight
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<TD class=createdate vAlign=top colSpan=2>Thursday, 29 July 2010 </TD></TR>
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<TD vAlign=top colSpan=2><SPAN class=small><A
href="http://www.vision.edu.au/" target=_self>ARC Centre of Excellence in
Vision Science</A></SPAN>
<DIV class=articleimageright><IMG style="WIDTH: 250px; HEIGHT: 151px"
title=istock_seahorse.jpg alt=istock_seahorse.jpg
src="http://www.sciencealert.com.au/images/stories/istock/istock_seahorse.jpg"
width=250 height=151>
<DIV class=articleimagecaption>The part of the eye that leads to
detailed<BR>vision, the fovea, is very similar in humans <BR>and
seahorses.<BR>Image: iStockphoto </DIV></DIV>
<P>Seahorses are helping scientists gain new understanding about how
detailed vision develops – in research which may open a way to restore
sight in people with age-related blinding diseases.</P>
<P>Researchers at the Vision Centre have found that the seahorses’ eyes
share similarities with the human eye, leading to the possibility of
imitating the development of the seahorse’s fovea to regenerate this vital
region of the eye in people with impaired vision.</P>
<P>“The fovea is the tiny pit at the back of the eye, which is the source
of all our detailed vision. Without a functioning fovea, you are legally
blind – that’s how important it is,” explains Dr Keely Bumsted O’Brien of
The Vision Centre and Australian National University.</P>
<P>“Our idea for restoring sight is thus to restore the fovea by imitating
the development process of this crucial region of the eye.”</P>
<P>“However, mimicking this development in mammals has proved extremely
difficult so far, but our exploration of how seahorses develop their fovea
may provide us an alternative pathway that we can mimic and adapt to
humans.”</P>
<P>“We can show that the development of seahorses’ vision shares certain
similarities with that of humans,” says Hie Rin Lee, a doctoral research
student who is working on the seahorses.</P>
<P>“There is a high density of cones which provide colour vision in bright
light in the seahorse fovea, and no rods, the cells needed for vision in
dim light. This structure is very similar to that of the human eye, and
understanding how it develops in seahorses may help us understand more
about how it develops in humans, and how to repair it if it is damaged,”
she says.</P>
<P>Hie Rin explains that they investigated the development of the
seahorses’ vision by measuring the young and adult seahorses’ responses in
detecting small prey. This also led to another similarity with the
development of our vision.</P>
<P>“By tracking their development we’ve also found that younger seahorses
have a less developed fovea than do adults. This also applies to humans,
as our ability to see fine detail doesn’t develop fully until we reach the
age of four or five”.</P>
<P>Dr Bumsted O’Brien says that the ability to see fine detail, such as
reading the words on a page or recognising a face all depend on the fovea,
this small pit in the back of our eye less than half a millimetre
across.</P>
<P>“A lot of eye diseases, especially those that affect the elderly, stem
from degeneration of the foveal region. For example, macular degeneration
affects one in every seven people over the age of 50.”</P>
<P>The research group also found that seahorses in tropical waters have
better vision than to those in darker waters and are exploring how
environment affects the development of the seahorses’ sight.</P>
<P>Dr Bumsted O’Brien says that the results her group are obtaining open
up exciting new research options for their group, including how the
environment influences the development of our sight.</P>
<HR>
<B>Editor's Note: </B>Original news release can be found <A
href="http://www.vision.edu.au/"><STRONG><FONT
color=#4d528f>here</FONT></STRONG></A>.<!-- START of joscomment --><!-- END of joscomment -->
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