Out of this World – Interplanetary Research on the Brain and Glaucoma
One of the major medical challenges for interplanetary travel is that long periods without gravity can cause worsening vision. Vision Research Foundation (VRF) and the Rapanui Trust are supporting this study at Mātai Charitable Trust, medical imaging research organisation, based in Gisborne. The research is led by Dr Jesse Gale with a team that includes other eye specialists; Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer, Dr Graham Wilson, Dr Matthew McDonald, (Mātai Research Fellow); and with image processing input from Dr Hari Kumar (scientist and Mātai Researcher) and Associate Professor Samantha Holdsworth (Mātai CE and Director of Research). This project was supported by Equinox US and Medical director, Dr John Berdahl, who provided the specialised goggles for this project.
The study looks at how fluid around the optic nerve is affected by different pressures in the tissues around the eye. Astronauts accumulate extra fluid in the head and around the optic nerves without gravity to pull the fluid down to their legs. For those of us not planning a space-trip anytime soon, the study is also looking at how the optic nerve sheath moves and changes in response to different pressures to understand the mechanical properties of the optic nerve sheath. This will help inform treatments for glaucoma and intracranial hypertension (high brain pressure), and other disorders, which are common optic nerve conditions and major causes of blindness.
Using specially developed goggles that apply pressure to the orbit, and new MRI signals, this project explores the changes that occur behind the eyes with different body positions and low gravity environments (i.e. in space).
Understanding the movement and mechanical properties of the orbital tissues behind the eye could help improve assessment and management of glaucoma, intracranial hypertension, and vision problems faced by astronauts after prolonged space flight.
The pilot study began in January to explore dynamic behaviour in the tissues around the eye (including muscles that move the eyes, fat, blood vessels, and the optic nerve and its fluid-filled sheath). The additional funding provided by the Vision Research Foundation and has Rapanui Trust has enabled further work on the study.
Dr Jesse Gale
This project is led by Wellington ophthalmologist Dr Jesse Gale, who has specialist training in glaucoma and neuro-ophthalmology. Dr Gale has public hospital and in private practice roles, and also at University of Otago Wellington where he teaches medical students. Dr Gale has research projects underway exploring how conditions of the optic nerve are linked and differentiated and how various pressures affect the eye and optic nerve. Dr Gale is developing 3D printed medical devices, studying the electrophysiology of optic nerve conditions and exploring how pressures of the eye, brain, and orbit change when the body is inverted. Dr Gale is interested in how glaucoma and other optic nerve conditions are linked and differentiated.
