Figure 5.

The influence of dopamine levels on form deprivation myopia susceptibility. The 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and dopamine (DA) levels and the DOPAC/DA ratio are the average levels obtained from retinas under normal visual conditions for each strain. These dopamine levels are plotted against the average myopic shift (A–C) or the axial shift from baseline (D–F) for each strain. Myopic shift was most strongly correlated with DOPAC levels across strains (Pearson’s correlation r=0.94, p=0.05), while basal state DA levels did not predict susceptibility to myopia (Pearson’s correlation r=–0.56). DA and DA metabolism (DOPAC levels) showed the strongest correlation with axial length shifts from baseline across strains (Pearson’s correlation r=–0.45 and r=–0.46, respectively), although DA turnover (DOPAC/DA ratio) had similar trends (Pearson’s correlation r=–0.35). Data for rd1, rd10, and wild-type (WT) retinas were obtained from this study, while the data from nob retinas were a combination of data obtained from [11] and recent additional measurements (n=33 for myopic shift, n=18 for axial length shift, and n=72 for dopamine data). Symbols and bars represent average±standard error of the mean (SEM).