Blood-retinal barrier as a converging pivot in understanding the initiation and development of retinal diseases.

Blood-retinal barrier as a converging pivot in understanding the initiation and development of retinal diseases. Chin Med J (Engl). 2020 Aug 25;: Authors: Yang X, Yu XW, Zhang DD, Fan ZG Abstract Clinical ophthalmologists consider each retinal disease as a completely unique entity. However, various retinal diseases, such as uveitis, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and primary open-angle glaucoma, share a number of common pathogenetic pathways. Whether a retinal disease initiates from direct injury to the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) or a defect/injury to retinal neurons or glia that impairs the BRB secondarily, the BRB is a pivotal point in determining the prognosis as self-limiting and recovering, or developing and progressing to a clinical phenotype. The present review summarizes our current knowledge on the physiology and cellular and molecular pathology of the BRB, which underlies its pivotal role in the initiation and development of common retinal diseases. PMID: 32852382 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Chinese Medical Journal - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Chin Med J (Engl) Source Type: research