Study Says Glaucoma May Be an Autoimmune Disease

A study conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear has found glaucoma may be an autoimmune disorder. In the study of mice, researchers looked for immune cells in the retinas of mice and found T cells, which is unusual because T cells are normally blocked from entering the retina by a layer of cells called the blood-retina barrier to suppress inflammation in the eye. The researchers also found when intraocular pressure goes up, T cells are somehow able to get through this barrier and into the retina. One of the biggest risk factors for glaucoma is elevated eye pressure, which occurs as people age and the ducts that allow fluid to drain from the eye become blocked. The study showed the body’s own T cells are responsible for the progressive retinal degeneration seen in glaucoma, and the T cells appear to be primed to attack retinal neurons as the result of previous interactions with bacteria that normally live in the body.

According to Jianzhu Chen, an MIT professor of biology, a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and one of the senior authors of the study, “This opens a new approach to prevent and treat glaucoma.” The study appeared in Nature Communications on August 10.