What Animal Models Can Tell Us About Glaucoma

Abstract

Well defined animal models facilitate the study of ocular diseases. Each model brings a unique perspective to the understanding of the disease process, and in some cases, the models are critical to the development of therapeutic approaches for treatments. This is especially the case for glaucoma. Glaucoma is a family of diseases that can be caused by very different biological processes. The one thing in common is the end result, the loss of retinal ganglion cells and blindness. In this review, we will attempt to relate the findings from a number of animal models to specific types of glaucoma, emphasizing the contributions that each of the models makes to our overall understanding of the complex collection of diseases we call glaucoma.

Keywords: Animal models; Gene networks; Genomics; Glaucoma; Retinal diseases.