A team from St George’s University, along with other experts, found something exciting in the human genome.
They discovered that there are 119 areas in our DNA that might decide how blood vessels in our eyes look and twist.
These findings are important because the way these blood vessels twist can be linked to serious health problems like high blood pressure and heart disease.
A Peek Into the Body Through the Eyes
Doctors can use a simple method called retinal imaging to get a very clear look at the back of our eyes.
This lets them see the retina (the back part of our eye) and the blood vessels and nerves there. This gives doctors a kind of “window” to see inside our bodies.
Before this study, other researchers had noticed that the size and shape of these blood vessels might have something to do with diseases like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and being overweight. But nobody knew how much our genes played a part in all of this.
How The Study Worked
To understand this mystery better, the researchers took a closer look at eye pictures of about 53,000 people from the UK Biobank study. They didn’t do this by hand.
Instead, they used computer programs with artificial intelligence (AI) to study the images. This AI could tell the difference between blood vessel types, see how wide they were, and measure how much they twisted.
After that, they used another method called a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to see if people with similar blood vessel features also had similar genes.
And they found something big: 119 parts of our DNA seemed to have a say in how these blood vessels looked.
Out of these, 89 parts were connected to how much these blood vessels twisted. And the more these vessels twisted, the higher the chance of high blood pressure and heart problems.
Why This Matters
This discovery means that by looking at the eyes, doctors might be able to get clues about heart health.
And by understanding which genes cause these changes in our blood vessels, scientists might one day come up with new treatments for these health issues.
The leader of this study, Professor Christopher Owen, and his team shared their findings in a journal called PLOS Genetics. If you or someone you know has issues with blood pressure, this could be a sign of hope for the future.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk, and herbal supplements could harm your heart rhythm.
For more information about health, please see recent studies that olive oil may help you live longer, and vitamin D could help lower the risk of autoimmune diseases.
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