Chief Supervisor

Dr Jeremy KANG

Project Title

Synopsis

Astigmatism is the most common type of refractive error, accounting for about 13% of all refractive errors in the human eye. It is characterized by irregular corneal curvature leading to asymmetric light refraction. Uncorrected astigmatism has been shown to seriously impair vision. Existing studies have shown that the degree of astigmatism is closely related to the biomechanical properties of the cornea. The higher the degree of astigmatism, the weaker the biomechanical properties. Therefore, it is speculated that improving corneal biomechanics may help prevent the occurrence of astigmatism. Corneal collagen cross-linking is a common method to enhance corneal biomechanics, and its long-term safety and effectiveness have been verified. However, it has not yet been applied in the chicken model. The chicken is a widely used animal model in vision research. It has excellent ocular optical properties, high sensitivity to changes in refractive state, rapid growth, similar corneal anatomical structure, and astigmatism characteristics similar to humans. This study aims to explore the relationship between astigmatism and corneal biomechanics through a chick model and gain a deeper understanding of how changes in corneal biomechanics affect the development of astigmatism.