Lumican (LUM) is one of the major extracellular matrix components of sclera. The sclera provides the necessary mechanical support to counteract intraocular pressure and maintain normal shape of the eye. Increasing evidence suggests that changing the composition of the sclera is one of the major factors in regulating axial elongation of the eye as in myopia. Our aim was to examine the role of LUM in the susceptibility and progression of myopia. The first part of our study is detecting the relation between known and novel single nucleotide polymorphisms of LUM and high myopia patients in Taiwanese Chinese. In the second part, in order to compare the effect of function of different SNPs, we use functional assay to detect the LUM under the condition of site-directed mutation. Moreover, since MAP kinase pathway is important in survival and apoptosis of cells, we use luciferase reporter assay to detect the influences of the transcription of LUM in mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway. There are three major pathways of MAP kinase (p38, JUN, ERK kinase pathway), they will be analysis individually. In the third part, in order to understand the function of LUM in vivo, transgenic drosophila is used to express the LUM. The phenotypes of transgenic drosophila are detected by confocal microscopy and electric microscopy. This may make us verify the results obtained from the functional assay and reporter assay in vitro. Myopia is an important eyes’ disease in Taiwan, the incidence of myopia in Taiwan is much higher than it in Caucasian. High myopia is an important etiology in retinopathy which can threaten the visual acuity. Study in myopia can help us in finding methods to prevent and teat the susceptibility and progression of high myopia
