Mechanisms of Retinal Ganglion Cell Death in Glaucoma

One of the causative events that ultimately leads to blindness in glaucoma is the destruction of ganglion cells in the retina by a process known as apoptosis, or programmed cell death. In order to study how these ganglion cells undergo cell death, we are in the process of establishing a culture of ganglion cells. It is believed that one reason for the apoptosis of ganglion cells could be due to deprivation of oxygen and nutrient supply to these cells. We would like to mimic these conditions in vitro (outside the living organism), by limiting the oxygen and glucose supply to these cultured cells. We would like to study the expression of some “cell saver” genes like Bcl-2 and others like Bax and ICE, which facilitate cell death, under these experimental conditions. We would also like to study, if we could protect the cells from apoptosis by pretreatment with well known antioxidants and ICE inhibitors. These studies could provide very important leads to save the ganglion cells from a pathway leading to its cell death.