If you ask an ophthalmologist about age-related myopia, you will probably get the answer that the condition is “incurable” and largely of unknown origin. The study below links the steady decline of one of the “youth” hormones – DHEA – as a primary cause of developing age-related myopia. Conversely, restoring DHEA to physiological levels reverses the pathological changes and factors leading to myopia such as increased hypoxia inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) as well as inflammation and decreased collagen production. Now, increased hypoxia is known to be driven by elevated estrogen and PUFA, but is also a general consequence of declining metabolism due to lower CO2 production and thus decreased tissue oxygenation. Thus, one may say that myopia is yet another metabolic conditions amenable to pro-metabolic approaches. I posted a few other similar studies recently demonstrating that ocular administration of niacinamide or progesterone also has therapeutic effects for conditions such as cataracts and “dry eye” syndrome, thus further corroborating the role of declining metabolism in chronic eye conditions.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002944025003426
“…The previous metabonomic analysis of intraocular fluids suggested intraocular hormones may play a role in high myopia pathogenesis. In this study, significantly reduced concentrations of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) were discovered in the vitreous humor (VH) of high myopia eyes. Additionally, DHEA levels in retina tissues of myopic guinea pigs were significantly decreased, further linking intraocular DHEA depletion to myopia-related tissue changes. Recent research has established scleral hypoxia as a fundamental mechanism underlying myopia development, with scleral fibroblasts serving as key functional cells in this process. Thus, this study investigated the effects of DHEA on human scleral fibroblasts (HSFs) under hypoxic conditions to generate novel insights for myopia prevention and treatment. The findings demonstrated that DHEA downregulates Hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) expression and reduces collagen loss under hypoxic conditions. Additionally, DHEA reversed the decreased cell proliferation observed in HSFs in vitro. These effects appear to be mediated through changes in mitochondrial dynamics and regulation of BNIP3L-mediated mitophagy induced by DHEA under hypoxia. The results suggest DHEA represents a promising novel therapeutic strategy for preventing myopia development.”
