A New Ocular Neovascularization Model

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Diabetic retinopathy (DR) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are the two leading causes of blindness in adults in the industrialized world. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a major cause of newborn blindness in premature infants maintained by oxygen supplementation during the postnatal period. In each of these diseases, ischemia resulting from loss of blood flow induces pathological neovascularization in the eye. There are several animal models of eye neovascularization (e.g. the corneal pocket assay); however, drug screening using these models is time-consuming, requires complicated surgery, and can be done in only a few animals. In addition, the complexity of eye neovascularization related diseases necessitates the development of new animal models for therapeutic drug assessment. This SBIR aims to develop a quantitative in vivo zebrafish neovascularization animal model for screening drugs for human eye diseases. The conserved early development of zebrafish and human eye vasculature supports the zebrafish as a model for studying vascular diseases affecting the eye. In addition to developmental progression, angiogenesis and vasculogenesis are conserved between zebrafish and mammals at the molecular level.