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Name: Jade Hawk
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Question:
Okay, I know I'm supposed to be able to answer questions here, but a friend who teaches grades 7 & 8 general science wants to know if the human eyeball is fully grown at birth. I checked my references, which are rather limited when it comes to human physiology, and found nothing. Can anyone help?


Replies:
The eye will still develop in size, pigmentation, and neurologically but I don't have the details here at hand. A kitten is born with eyes even more immature than human babies. Besides having sealed eyes that take about a week to open, they have retinas that a avascularized and need to undergo neovascularization to properly nourish and oxygenate the tissue. We have used the kitten to study retinopathy of prematurity, a condition caused in part by increased inspired oxygen. The kitten is also used in the study of diabetic retinopathy which a I think is the leading cause of blindness in the US. Look up publications by Dale Phelps, MD.

Michael B Lomonaco


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