Optometry Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Optometry, including details on myopia, optometric practice, therapy.

Proteases in eye development and disease.

Wride MA, Geatrell J, Guggenheim JA

School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom. WrideMA@cardiff.ac.uk

The eye is one of the classical systems in developmental biology. Furthermore, diseases of the eye, many of which have a developmental basis, have devastating effects that often result in blindness. Proteases have diverse roles in ocular physiology and pathophysiology. Here, a broad overview is provided of the recent literature pertaining to the involvement of proteases in various aspects of eye development and disease: lens development (focusing on apoptosis and lens fiber cell denucleation and organelle loss) and cataract progression, cornea development and disease, retina development and degeneration, sclera development and myopia, and the trabecular meshwork and glaucoma. Proteases discussed include caspases, calpains, matrix metalloproteases (MMPs), a disintegrin and metalloproteinases (ADAMs) and ADAM with thrombospondin motifs (ADAMTS), the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP), tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), and secretases. It is clear that proteases have diverse and important roles in ocular development and disease, and represent, in many cases, useful therapeutic targets for treating ocular conditions, which would otherwise lead to visual impairment.

Published 25 April 2006 in Birth Defects Res C Embryo Today, 78(1): 90-105.
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