Corneal endothelial health and central corneal thickness in Beagle dogs

The purpose of this study is to characterize the impact of the G611R missense mutation in the ADAMTS10 gene on canine corneal endothelial health and central corneal thickness. Specular microscopy was used to take measurements of corneal thickness, corneal endothelial cell density, average cell area, coefficient of cell size variation, hexagonality of cells, and maximum and minimum cell area from  25 ADAMS10-mutant Beagles, and 11 normal Beagles with 5-15 images were collected per eye per session. The genotype effect was assessed using hierarchical multivariate Bayesian mixed effects regression, with univariate sensitivity analyses. After accounting for age, sex, and random effects, ADAMTS10-mutant canine corneas showed higher corneal thickness, higher endothelial cell size variation and lower endothelial cell density. 

PI: Phillip Buckman and Andras Komaromy

CSTAT collaborator: Johe Johnson