Altered Retinal Dopamine Levels in a Melatonin-proficient Mouse Model of Form-deprivation Myopia
Kang-Wei Qian1 • Yun-Yun Li1,4 • Xiao-Hua Wu1,2 • Xue Gong1 • Ai-Lin Liu1 • Wen-Hao Chen1 • Zhe Yang1 • Ling-Jie Cui1 • Yun-Feng Liu1 • Yuan-Yuan Ma1 • Chen-Xi Yu1 • Furong Huang3 • Qiongsi Wang3 • Xiangtian Zhou3 • Jia Qu3 • Yong-Mei Zhong1 • Xiong-Li Yang1 • Shi-Jun Weng11 State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
2 Discipline of Neuroscience and Department of Anatomy and Physiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China
3 School of Ophthalmology and Optometry and Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325027, China
4 Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China
Abstract
Reduced levels of retinal dopamine, a key regulator of eye development, are associated with experimental myopia in various species, but are not seen in the myopic eyes of C57BL/6 mice, which are deficient in melatonin, a neurohormone having extensive interactions with dopamine. Here, we examined the relationship between form-deprivation myopia (FDM) and retinal dopamine levels in melatonin-proficient CBA/CaJ mice. We found that these mice exhibited a myopic refractive shift in form-deprived eyes, which was accompanied by altered retinal dopamine levels. When melatonin receptors were pharmacologically blocked, FDM could still be induced, but its magnitude was reduced, and retinal dopamine levels were no longer altered in FDM animals, indicating that melatonin-related changes in retinal dopamine levels contribute to FDM. Thus, FDM is mediated by both dopamine level-independent and melatonin-related dopamine level-dependent mechanisms in CBA/CaJ mice. The previously reported unaltered retinal dopamine levels in myopic C57BL/6 mice may be attributed to melatonin deficiency.
Keywords
Myopia; Refractive development; Dopamine; Melatonin; Mouse; Retina
