Finding the genes for myopia
April 7, 2009 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Health
A person with myopia can see closer objects better than distant objects (which appear blurred). A person with “high” myopia is so extremely nearsighted that only objects that are very near can be seen clearly, rendering the person as blind. Whereas a person with “mild” myopia may see object farther away as blurry but the person’s eyesight can still function.
A blurred vision.
Like most research in genetics, finding the genes for myopia has not been straightforward or easy. That’s because myopia has been defined, measured and classified in many different ways, in different studies. There’s high versus mild myopia or school versus adult myopia. How myopia is measured also differs from one group of scientists to another. And then there are the known and unknown environmental factors that influence how and why a person develops myopia! In scientific studies, it is often advised (and very helpful) to have the environment totally under controlled, and held the same across experiments. So this lack of uniformity between studies has prevented a more thorough and comprehensive analysis of the genetics. It’s rather overwhelming and frustrating!
Progress has been made in recent years, though. The more detailed article is found here, but in gist, potential genes for myopia have been identified:
Studies in “high” myopia found very strong evidence for autosomal myopia loci in chromosomes 18 (named MYP2 gene), 12 (MYP3) and 17. Studies in “mild” myopia identified several loci that may be partly responsible for myopia, including those in chromosome 11 (PAX6 gene region) and 22.
However, in many cases, further research really have to be done before someone can say “Eureka! I found it!”
image: flickr
