“Aging gene,” the team showed that giving older mice specific fatty acids improved their eyesight, even reversing signs of aging in the eye.
Changes in eyesight are one of the most common signs of getting older. Sit down in a dimly lit restaurant with someone over 60, and you might hear them say, “Hold on — let me pull out my cell phone. I need more light to read the menu!” But what if it were possible to restore the sharp vision we lose with age?
Researchers have been exploring exactly that. Their latest study investigates a potential therapy that could slow or even reverse the aging process in the eye while helping prevent conditions like age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Understanding the “Aging” Gene
This work expands on an earlier study of the Elongation of Very Long Chain Fatty Acids Protein 2 (ELOVL2), a gene known to be an important marker of aging. “We showed that we have lower vision when this ELOVL2 enzyme isn’t active,” says Skowronska-Krawczyk, who is also part of the Robert M. Brunson Center for Translational Vision Research at UC Irvine’s School of Medicine. In that previous research, boosting ELOVL2 activity in older mice increased levels of the omega−3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in the eye, resulting in better vision.
