Yan Zhang

Speaker

Yan Zhang, MD, PhD
Clinician Scientist
UC Berkeley School of Optometry

Date and Time

Monday, October 26, 2020
11 am - 12:30 pm

Location

Zoom

Role of RPE in myopia development and treatment

Myopia is one of the most common types of refractive errors and a major cause of visual impairment and blindness worldwide. Most myopia is the product of excessive vitreous chamber elongation, which reflects a failure of eye growth regulation. This process is visually driven and largely local to the eye, involving multiple ocular tissues from the retina to sclera. The key hypothesis driving much of my recent research is that the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which lies between the retina, the origin of visually-evoked growth regulatory signals, and choroid/sclera, plays a crucial role in this process as a signal relay. Using both animal models and cell cultures, we performed a series of studies to show the central role of RPE in these retina-sclera signaling cascades. Using chick as an animal model, we identified multiple differentially regulated genes during the development of myopia, including many in the TGF-β super family. Using cultured RPE cells, we were able to show that dopamine, a key retinal neurotransmitter tied to growth inhibition, stimulated the secretion of TGF-βs. Using cultured chick scleral fibroblast, we were able to show that exogenous BMP increased expression of ID genes, known downstream elements. Together, these studies point to a critical role of RPE as a signal relay in myopia development, opening the possibility of targeting RPE for myopia control.