4.7 Review

Retinal Ganglion Cell Survival and Axon Regeneration after Optic Nerve Injury: Role of Inflammation and Other Factors

Journal

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ijms231710179

Keywords

retina; inflammation; transcription; CNS repair; optic nerve; oncomodulin; myeloid cells; regeneration

Funding

  1. Gilbert Family Foundation Vision Restoration Initiative
  2. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation
  3. NIH Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Centers Imaging Core of Boston Children's Hospital [HD018655]
  4. BrightFocus National Glaucoma Research Postdoctoral Award

Ask authors/readers for more resources

The optic nerve, once injured, cannot regenerate, leading to the death of retinal ganglion cells. However, research has identified strategies that can enable regeneration and improve vision, offering hope for patients with currently untreatable losses.
The optic nerve, like most pathways in the mature central nervous system, cannot regenerate if injured, and within days, retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the neurons that extend axons through the optic nerve, begin to die. Thus, there are few clinical options to improve vision after traumatic or ischemic optic nerve injury or in neurodegenerative diseases such as glaucoma, dominant optic neuropathy, or optic pathway gliomas. Research over the past two decades has identified several strategies to enable RGCs to regenerate axons the entire length of the optic nerve, in some cases leading to modest reinnervation of di- and mesencephalic visual relay centers. This review primarily focuses on the role of the innate immune system in improving RGC survival and axon regeneration, and its synergy with manipulations of signal transduction pathways, transcription factors, and cell-extrinsic suppressors of axon growth. Research in this field provides hope that clinically effective strategies to improve vision in patients with currently untreatable losses could become a reality in 5-10 years.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available