TY - JOUR T1 - Association of <em>hsa-mir-328-3p</em> Expression in Whole Blood With Optical Density of Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells JF - In Vivo JO - In Vivo SP - 827 LP - 831 DO - 10.21873/invivo.12323 VL - 35 IS - 2 AU - EDITA KUNCEVICIENE AU - BRIGITA BUDIENE AU - ALINA SMALINSKIENE AU - ALVITA VILKEVICIUTE AU - RASA LIUTKEVICIENE Y1 - 2021/03/01 UR - http://iv.iiarjournals.org/content/35/2/827.abstract N2 - Aim: To investigate the association of the pair box 6 gene (PAX6) and hsa-miR-328-3p with optical density of macular pigment. Materials and Methods: We evaluated 112 individuals (34 with moderate myopia, eight with high-degree myopia, and 70 healthy individuals). The optical density of macular pigment was measured using single-wavelength reflectometry. DNA and RNA were extracted from whole blood samples. Expression of hsa-miR-328-3p and genotyping of single-nucleotide polymorphism of PAX6 (rs662702) were performed using Applied Biosystems 7900HT real-time polymerase chain reaction system. Optical density of retinal pigment epithelial cells was evaluated using Fundus plus camera. Results: In the group with myopia, with increasing ∆Ct hsa-miR-328-3p, the median optical density of the retinal pigment epithelium decreased statistically significantly (p&lt;0.032). No statistically significant association was found between SNP rs662702 genotype variant of the PAX6 gene and the optical density of the retinal pigment epithelium. Conclusion: The increased expression of hsa-miR-328-3p in the blood indicates a decrease in the optical density of the retinal pigment epithelium in those with myopia. ER -