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Editors Selection IGR 13-2

Basic Research: Dendrite pathology

Comment by Yeni Yucel on:

27865 Dendritic changes in visual pathways in glaucoma and other neurodegenerative conditions, Liu M; Duggan J; Salt TE et al., Experimental Eye Research, 2011; 92: 244-250

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Liu et al. (92) review dendrite pathology in retinal ganglion cells, and neurons of the lateral geniculate nucleus in glaucoma. The authors cover comparative anatomy of the visual system in primate, cat and rodents, and highlight morphological similarities in dendrite pathology between glaucoma, neurodegenerative diseases, development and aging. I would like to address two points that may complement this review.

The first point is that while morphological changes in dendrites may be similar during development, neural degeneration in glaucoma and neurodegenerative diseases, the underlying molecular mechanisms are likely quite different, depending on the injury and cell types.¹ This is highly relevant to developing targeted neuroprotective treatments. The second point is that dendrite morphology can be preserved or modified with treatment. In fact, Weber and Harman showed that intravitreal BDNF preserves dendrites of retinal ganglion cells following optic nerve injury in cat.² More recently, Ly and co-workers showed that memantine, an open channel NMDA blocker, reduces dendrite pathology in LGN neurons in primate glaucoma.³ Studies of long-term in vivo imaging and measurement of dendrites may help to screen candidate treatment agents, as described by Leung and coworkers.⁴ Better understandings of mechanisms underlying dendrite pathology may lead to novel therapeutic interventions to reverse or prevent injury in visual neurons in glaucoma.

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