Vision Reform

Many people find that enjoying the sight of the sparkling night sky, or glittering images like this mouse retina, gets harder as they age. Vision can deteriorate as the years catch up with us, and researchers trying to understand why have been examining a particular molecule, ELOVL2 (yellow), known to reflect how far along the ageing process our bodies are. Looking at the eyes of ageing mice, they discovered that ELOVL2 not just indicates an ageing system, but plays a role in the decline. ELOVL2 helps produce fatty acids in the brain and retina that promote healthy function and protect from damage, which may explain why as ELOVL2 concentrations decreased with age, eye function declined. However, when the researchers boosted ELOVL2 levels back up, the decline was reversed, raising hopes that this might present a new potential target for treatments, helping older people enjoy the view once more.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image by Keunyoung Kim, Wonkyu Ju and Mark Ellisman, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research at UC San Diego
• Research from Shiley Eye Institute, Viterbi Family Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Aging Cell, January 2020