Abstract
The death of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) is a key factor in the pathophysiology of all types of glaucoma, but the mechanism of pathogenesis of glaucoma remains unclear. RGCs are a group of central nervous system (CNS) neurons whose soma are in the inner retina. The axons of RGCs form the optic nerve and converge at the optic chiasma; from there, they project to the visual cortex via the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the dysfunction and death of CNS and retinal neurons caused by transneuronal degeneration of RGCs, and the view that glaucoma is a widespread neurodegenerative disease involving CNS damage appears more and more frequently in the literature. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of LGN and visual cortex neuron damage in glaucoma and possible mechanisms behind the damage. This review presents an updated and expanded view of neuronal damage in glaucoma, and reveals new and potential targets for neuroprotection and treatment.
Highlights
Glaucoma, a group of diseases categorized by characteristic optic nerve damage and loss of visual field, is currently the most common cause of irreversible blindness in the world
Both this and previous results indicate that the relay neurons projecting from the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) to the visual cortex experience significant atrophy during glaucoma, but this study showed that neurons in the parvocellular cells (P cells) layer experienced significantly greater atrophy than those in the magnocellular cells (M cells) layer
We discuss evidence indicating that retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) damage caused by various factors can lead to secondary damage to the retina and central neurons
Summary
The death of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) is a key factor in the pathophysiology of all types of glaucoma, but the mechanism of pathogenesis of glaucoma remains unclear. The axons of RGCs form the optic nerve and converge at the optic chiasma; from there, they project to the visual cortex via the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). There has been increasing interest in the dysfunction and death of CNS and retinal neurons caused by transneuronal degeneration of RGCs, and the view that glaucoma is a widespread neurodegenerative disease involving CNS damage appears more and more frequently in the literature. We summarize the current knowledge of LGN and visual cortex neuron damage in glaucoma and possible mechanisms behind the damage.
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