Study finds that glaucoma is associated with genetic variation

Glaucoma is a common eye disease that is primarily associated with pathological increased intraocular pressure. When the intraocular pressure exceeds the limits that can be tolerated by tissues in the eyeball, especially the optic nerve of the retina, optic nerve atrophy and visual field defects may occur, leading to glaucoma.

A research group at Kyoto Prefectural University said a few days ago that they have discovered genetic mutations related to glaucoma caused by optic nerve weakness. This result was published in the American online science magazine "Public Science Library - General".

According to researchers, they compared the genes of 1,244 glaucoma patients (mean age, 64 years) and 975 normal people (mean age, 60 years) and found that most patients had five variants of a particular gene.

The team believes that after these genetic variants occur, the body cannot properly regulate the amount of protein that maintains the nerve cells, causing the optic nerve to weaken, which in turn causes glaucoma. Professor Dai Daikai, a research group leader and professor at Kyoto Prefectural University, said that he hopes to use this result three years later to develop a method for early detection of glaucoma through blood tests.

It is still difficult for current medical technology to detect this condition early. The new discovery is expected to enable researchers to develop new medical testing methods to effectively control glaucoma.

According to the data, about 5% of Japanese over the age of 40 suffer from glaucoma, and glaucoma caused by optic nerve loss accounts for about 80% of patients with glaucoma in Japan.