The role of microbiota in retinal disease

Authors: ROWAN, SHELDON - Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center On Aging At Tufts University; TAYLOR, ALLEN - Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center On Aging At Tufts University

Submitted to: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/9/2018
Publication Date: 5/3/2018
Citation: Rowan, S., Taylor, A. 2018. The role of microbiota in retinal disease. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. p. 429-435. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75402-4_53.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75402-4_53

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The ten years since the first publications on the human microbiome project have brought enormous attention and insight into the role of the human microbiome in health and disease. Connections between populations of microbiota and ocular disease are now being established, and increased accessibility to microbiome research and insights into other diseases is expected to yield enormous information in the coming years. With the characterization of the ocular microbiome, important insights have already been made regarding corneal and conjunctival tissues. Roles for non-ocular microbiomes in complex retinal diseases are now being evaluated. For example, the gut microbiome has been implicated in the pathogenesis of uveitis. This short review will summarize the few studies linking gut or oral microbiota to diabetic retinopathy (DR), glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). We will also conjecture where the most significant findings still remain to be elucidated. Finally, we will propose the gut-retina axis, related but distinct from the gut-brain axis.