Weird ‘gut-eye axis’ links the retina and intestines, and may help explain glaucoma

Glaucoma, an eye fixed illness that step by step causes blindness by damaging the optic nerve, is commonly triggered by extra strain from fluid within the eye — however some folks nonetheless lose imaginative and prescient even after that strain is relieved. 

Now, new analysis factors to a shocking motive why: A gaggle of immune cells from the intestine can acquire the power to infiltrate the retina, the light-sensitive tissue behind the attention, wreaking havoc. These cells — illness fighters referred to as “helper T cells” that carry a protein known as beta 7 — don’t usually have the power to cross the optic nerve into the attention, however one thing concerning the early phases of glaucoma appears to set off a weird activation sample that finally ends up altering the T cells and worsening illness development.