Analysis of ocular structural parameters and higher-order aberrations in Chinese children with myopia.

BACKGROUND: Myopia and high myopia are global public health concerns. Patients with high myopia account for 0.5%-5.0% of the global population. AIM: To examine diopters, axial length (AL), higher-order aberrations, and other ocular parameters in Chinese children with myopia, to analyze the influence of structural parameters associated with myopia on visual quality, and to provide a theoretical basis for the prevention and treatment of childhood myopia and high myopia. METHODS: This study included 195 children aged 6-17 years with myopia. The AL was measured with an ultrasonic ophthalmic diagnostic instrument, and the aberrations, corneal curvature (minimum K1, maximum K2, and average Km), central corneal thickness, anterior chamber depth, and anterior chamber angle were measured using a Sirius three-dimensional anterior segment analyzer. Using a standard formula, the corneal radius of curvature R (337.3/Km) and AL/R values were obtained. RESULTS: The diopter of high myopia compared with low-middle myopia was correlated with age and AL (r = -0.336, -0.405, P < 0.001), and AL of high myopia was negatively correlated with K1, K2, and Km (r = -0.673, -0.661, and -0.680, respectively; P < 0.001), and positively correlated with age and the anterior chamber depth (r = 0.214 and 0.275, respectively; P < 0.05). AL/R was more closely related to diopter than AL in children with myopia, and 94.4% of children with myopia had an AL/R of > 3.00. CONCLUSION: The ocular structural parameters of children change because of different diopters. AL/R is more specific and sensitive than AL in evaluating the refractive status of myopia in children. An AL/R of > 3.00 may be used as a specific index of myopia in children. There are differences in AL/R between high myopia and low-middle myopia, which can be used for the classification of ametropia. The degree of myopia has a certain influence on higher-order aberrations.

Identification of Circular RNA Expression Profiles in White Adipocytes and Their Roles in Adipogenesis.

Obesity and its related metabolic diseases have become great public health threats worldwide. Although accumulated evidence suggests that circRNA is a new type of non-coding RNAs regulating various physiological and pathological processes, little attention has been paid to the expression profiles and functions of circRNAs in white adipose tissue. In this study, 3,771 circRNAs were detected in three stages of white adipogenesis (preadipocyte, differentiating preadipocyte, and mature adipocyte) by RNA-seq. Experimental validation suggested that the RNA-seq results are highly reliable. We found that nearly 10% of genes which expressed linear RNAs in adipocytes could also generate circRNAs. In addition, 40% of them produced multiple circRNA isoforms. We performed correlation analysis and found that a great deal of circRNAs (nearly 50%) and their parental genes were highly correlated in expression levels. A total of 41 differential expression circRNAs (DECs) were detected during adipogenesis and an extremely high ratio of them (80%) were correlated with their parental genes, indicating these circRNAs may potentially play roles in regulating the expression of their parental genes. KEGG enrichment and GO annotation of the parental genes suggesting that the DECs may participate in several adipogenesis-related pathways. Following rigorous selection, we found that many up-regulated circRNAs contain multiple miRNAs binding sites, such as miR17, miR-30c, and miR-130, indicating they may potentially facilitate their regulatory functions by acting as miRNA sponges. These results suggest that plenty of circRNAs are expressed in white adipogenesis and the DECs may serve as new candidates for future adipogenesis regulation.

Ten SNPs of PAX6, Lumican, and MYOC genes are not associated with high myopia in Han Chinese.

PURPOSE: To investigate whether the PAX6, Lumican, and MYOC genes are related to high myopia in Han Chinese since the association between these genes and high myopia is unclear in this patient population. METHODS: Peripheral venous blood samples were collected for DNA extraction from 220 subjects with high myopia (refractive error ≤-10.00 D) vs. normal controls among the Han Chinese of Northeastern China. Mass spectrometry was applied to detect 10 SNP loci of the PAX6, Lumican, and MYOC genes. The candidate region was analyzed using case-control correlation analysis. The χ(2) test was used to analyze the allele and genotype frequencies in the myopic group vs. the control group. Haploview software was used for haplotype analysis. RESULTS: The χ(2) test was used to compare the allele and genotype frequencies of SNPs in patients and control subjects and the results showed that ten SNPs of the PAX6, Lumican, and MYOC genes were not significantly associated with high myopia. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm that the PAX6, Lumican, and MYOC genes were not associated with high myopia in the Han Chinese in Northeastern China.