Diabetic retinopathy (DR) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are the two leading causes of blindness in adults in the industrialized world. Both conditions involve vascular abnormalities, proliferation and leakage of new blood vessels. Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a major cause of newborn blindness in premature infants maintained by oxygen supplementation during the postnatal period. This disease 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 models for ocular neovascularization require lengthy, tedious surgical manipulation and do not always result in improved vision;an alternative rapid, less invasive animal model for studying the process of ocular neovascularization and assessing drug effects will facilitate identification of new therapeutics. Phase I research validated zebrafish as a model for vascularization of the eye. Phase II research will develop a zebrafish model for ocular vascularization that can be used to screen drugs that would be effective in treating debilitating diseases involving neovascularization.
