Molecular neurobiology of retinal degeneration

Abstract

Retinal degeneration is a major cause of blindness in the elderly worldwide. The problem is likely to increase as people live longer lives, imposing a unique challenge to the scientific community to find a cure. In recent years, our understanding of molecular mechanisms behind retinal degenerations has vastly increased. Several key mechanisms have been identified. These include ischemia, oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, autoimmunity, and inflammation. These mechanisms often act in concert with each other, and the final converging point for most of them appears to be apoptosis pathways. Diseases causing retinal degeneration, through their unique pathophysiology, evoke the mechanisms mentioned earlier. This chapter first describes the general mechanisms of retinal degeneration, and then discusses how the disease-specific pathology relates to these mechanisms. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved.