Insight into preemies’ blindness
About 5 percent of premature babies suffer vision losses, including blindness, due to a condition known as retinopathy of prematurity. The damage occurs when excessive growth of blood vessels and other tissue pulls the newborn’s retinas away from the walls of their eyes. Now, researchers have linked the condition to low concentrations of a substance called insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).
Previous research established that IGF-1 concentrations are higher in full-term babies than in preemies, says Lois E. H. Smith of Harvard Medical School in Boston. She and her colleagues also knew that IGF-1 is crucial for the survival of cells that make up blood vessels. So, they looked at the effect of various concentration of IGF-1 and found that the concentrations associated with premature birth aren’t high enough to ensure survival of blood vessel cells in laboratory cultures.