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Sometimes being upset at a postal mishap can be shortsighted. At least, that’s what researchers at one lab in the United States discovered after a donated human retina arrived at the facility in a shabby and shaken package.
This sloppy delivery has helped researchers uncover a previously undetected mechanism causing at least one type of macular degeneration, challenging the current treatment methods for choroidal neovascularization (CNV), a type of age-related macular degeneration which usually leads to blindness.
Current treatments either damage the retina and healthy blood vessels or cause damaging retinal scarring and are only short-term solutions.
The breakthrough came when the donated human retina from an eye bank arrived after being severely shaken during shipment. Upon examination of the eye it was found that regions of the retina with invading diseased blood vessels had separated from their underlying membrane, while regions that had stayed attached showed much less invasion, suggesting that adhesion might be an essential mechanism in maintaining the retina’s structure.
The accident inspired scientists to replicate the shaking in new simulations, producing maps that related defects in each type of adhesion to the risk of each type of invasion, helping determine the probability, pattern, and rate of progression of CNV.
Researchers believe these results will also have a much broader impact, as they apply to any tissue, including the lungs.
So the next time a package arrives a little dinged or shaken up, don’t be too quick to yell at the postman. He might have simply been setting the stage for another medical breakthrough.
