High Magnesium Promotes the Recovery of Binocular Vision from Amblyopia via TRPM7.

Abstract

Abnormal visual experience during the critical period can cause deficits in visual function, such as amblyopia. High magnesium (Mg²⁺) supplementary can restore ocular dominance (OD) plasticity, which promotes the recovery of amblyopic eye acuity in adults. However, it remains unsolved whether Mg²⁺ could recover binocular vision in amblyopic adults and what the molecular mechanism is for the recovery. We found that in addition to the recovery of OD plasticity, binocular integration can be restored under the treatment of high Mg²⁺ in amblyopic mice. Behaviorally, Mg²⁺-treated amblyopic mice showed better depth perception. Moreover, the effect of high Mg²⁺ can be suppressed with transient receptor potential melastatin-like 7 (TRPM7) knockdown. Collectively, our results demonstrate that high Mg²⁺ could restore binocular visual functions from amblyopia. TRPM7 is required for the restoration of plasticity in the visual cortex after high Mg²⁺ treatment, which can provide possible clinical applications for future research and treatment of amblyopia.