Heritable influences in experimental retinopathy of prematurity

早产儿视网膜病变是一种早产儿的眼病，需要新生儿重症监护。它是全世界儿童失明的主要原因。这种疾病是由眼球后部视网膜中异常血管的生长引起的。目前，管理包括由眼科医生对早产儿进行反复检查。为了这次检查，婴儿们被麻醉了。如果发现早期疾病，则用医用激光治疗受影响的眼睛，以烧毁异常血管。这可以阻止这些血管的生长，并可以防止孩子失明。然而，激光治疗本身会损害眼睛。如果不治疗，早产儿的早期视网膜病变会在一些婴儿身上自动消失，但由于目前无法将他们与那些将发展成严重疾病的婴儿区分开来，所有有疾病迹象的婴儿都会得到治疗。并不是每个早产儿都会患上早产儿视网膜病变：一种未知的遗传因素控制着疾病的易感性。我们计划用实验室大鼠来研究这种遗传基础。在与重症监护托儿所相同的条件下饲养的幼鼠会患上类似早产儿视网膜病变的眼病。然而，与人类婴儿一样，并不是每只幼鼠都会患上这种眼病。我们已经在不同品系的大鼠中显示出可遗传的视网膜病变倾向。我们确定了患有或不患有眼病的大鼠之间不同的基因和蛋白质。我们预测，对早产儿大鼠视网膜病变的遗传因素的识别将为人类类似的因素提供强有力的线索。我们的最终目标是开发一种测试，以确定哪些人类婴儿有患早产儿致盲视网膜病的风险，这样就不会进行不必要的治疗。我们还希望发现新的治疗靶点。

Retinopathy of prematurity is an eye disease of very premature infants who require neonatal intensive care. It is a major cause of childhood blindness world-wide. Disease is caused by the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the retina, at the back of the eye. Currently, management involves the repeated examination of premature infants by an eye doctor. The babies are anaesthetized for this examination. If early disease is detected, then the affected eyes are treated with a medical laser, to burn the abnormal blood vessels. This stops the growth of these vessels and can prevent the child from going blind. However, the laser treatment itself can damage the eye. Left untreated, early retinopathy of prematurity will disappear of its own accord in some babies, but because they cannot currently be distinguished from those who will develop severe disease, all babies with signs of disease are treated. Not every premature infant develops retinopathy of prematurity: an as-yet unknown genetic factor controls susceptibility to disease. We plan to investigate this genetic basis using laboratory rats. Raised under the same conditions that are used in intensive care nurseries, baby rats develop eye disease that is similar to retinopathy of prematurity. However, as with human babies, not every baby rat develops this eye disease. We have shown a heritable tendency to retinopathy in different strains of rat. We identify the genes and proteins that differ amongst rats with or without the eye disease. We predict that identification of the inherited factors for retinopathy of prematurity in rats will provide strong clues to similar factors in humans. Our ultimate goal is to develop a test which will identify those human babies who are at risk of developing blinding retinopathy of prematurity, so that treatment is not given unnecessarily. We also expect to discover new targets for treatment.