The leading cause of blindness in adults is diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. Both conditions involve vascular abnormalities, leakage and proliferation of new blood vessels. Retinopathy of prematurity is a major cause of newborn blindness in premature infants maintained by oxygen supplementation during the postnatal period. This condition involves intense neovascularization of the retina and leads to retinal detachment. Another cause of blindness is corneal neovascularization, which often results from injury and infection in the cornea. Current mammalian ocular neovascularization models for screening potential therapeutics require tedious surgical manipulation and are lengthy. Using zebrafish embryos, this SBIR proposes to develop a hypoxia induced zebrafish ocular neovascularization model. Zebrafish is a good animal model for eye disease. Orthologs of many genes involved in angiogenesis in mammals have been identified in zebrafish. Assays and drug treatment are easily performed on the zebrafish embryo because of its rapid ex-utero development. Embryos are transparent, permitting visual observation of defects in development and angiogenesis in the eye and elsewhere. This SBIR will characterize embryogenesis and patterning, and blood vessel formation in the zebrafish eye. This SBIR will also confirm expression of hypoxia-induced genes in zebrafish. The zebrafish model will facilitate screening and development of therapeutics for eye diseases.
