Relationship between autophagy and retinal ganglion cells in animal models of glaucoma

The main pathological feature of glaucoma is progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), and the damage mechanisms have not been elucidated.Autophagy is a lysosomal degradative process that eliminates damaged cellular constituents, including organelles and long-life proteins.And autophagy plays an important role in cellular homeostasis.Recent studies have shown that autophagy is involved in the pathophysiological process of glaucoma.This article summarized the relationship between autophagy and RGCs in different animal models of glaucoma, such as optic nerve damage model, ischemia-reperfusion model and ocular hypertension model.In various animal models of glaucoma, autophagy can not only promote RGCs survival but also their death.And in the same animal model of glaucoma, autophagy also plays a double-edged sword effect on RGCs.Meanwhile, we elaborated the interaction between autophagy and Sirt1, which can protect the neurons.