Ophthalmology
Susceptibility to Neurodegeneration in a Glaucoma Is Modified by Bax Gene Dosage
By PLoS Genetics
Jul 25, 2005, 17:13

Glaucoma is a group of diseases whose unifying characteristic is death of nerve cells (retinal ganglion cells) that connect the eye to the brain. Glaucoma is often associated with a harmfully high pressure inside the eye (intraocular pressure) contributing to nerve cell death. Various treatments are used to lower eye pressure, but currently no commonly used treatments directly protect the nerve cells.

DBA/2J mice develop elevated eye pressure with age, and this pressure kills retinal nerve cells. The authors use this mouse model to investigate how these nerve cells die in glaucoma. They show that there are distinct degeneration pathways activated in different parts of the retinal nerve cells. They found that the biochemical pathway in the nerve cell body, which resides in the retina, requires a molecule called BAX (BCL2-associated X protein).

In contrast, pathways in the part of the cell (axon) that connects the cell body to the brain do not require BAX. Because degeneration pathways in the cell body and of the axon also may be molecularly different in human glaucoma, it will be important to consider them all when designing therapies. Their data also suggest that the BAX gene is a candidate to modulate glaucoma susceptibility.

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