Highlights
- With age, our vision dims as our retina degrades
- A gene called ELOVL helps to make Very long chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (VLC-PUFAs) that are key to slowing down vision deterioration
- Treating mice with VLC-PUFAs helped reverse their vision loss and key also reduced key markers of age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
Dimming vision as we age
Our retinas are uniquely susceptible to the effects of aging. Countless numbers of the elderly have trouble with seeing in low light conditions due to the slow degradation of the retina with age. Normal age-related vision degradation includes reduced contrast sensitivity, and reduced ability to adjust our vision under low light conditions. Sometimes the degradation of the retina can progress to age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
ELOVL2 gene holds a key to age-related vision deterioration
Researchers at the University of California Irvine found that a gene called ELOVL 2 holds the key to retinal health as we age. This enzyme, responsible for elongating lipids (long chain fats to very long-chain fats) loses its function as we age. This gene controls a key step for producing two important fatty acids called docosahexanoic acid (DHA) and very long chain fatty acids (VLC-PUFA). In a previous study, the same group of researchers had found that this gene function declines in mouse eyes with age. When they remove the function of this gene in mice, the mice spontaneously develop signs of vision deterioration and retinal APOE lipid deposits seen in human AMD. Notably, when they analyzed human genetic data from two human genetic databases, they found that a variant of this gene was associated with AMD, further confirming that the researchers were on the right track.
Supplementation with VLC-PUFA led to improvements in vision
Most excitingly, when the researchers injected the mice with VLC-PUFA, their vision improved, and many of the signs of retinal aging were reversed. The retina had a younger genetic signature and the accumulation of APOE particles seen in AMD, was also reduced. While this study is in mice and human testing is yet to be done, this finding holds the exciting prospect of reversing age-related vision loss in millions of the elderly ranging from normal loss of vision to severe vision loss such as seen in AMD.Chen D., Chao D.L. et. al., The lipid elongation enzyme ELOVL2 is a molecular regulator of aging in the retina.https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13100
Gao F. et. al., Retinal polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation reverses aging-related vision decline in mice. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.ads5769
Reversing Age-Related Vision Decline. https://medschool.uci.edu/news/reversing-age-related-vision-decline