Regulatory Mechanisms in the Episcleral Circulation

Glaucoma (Green Star) is an eye disease that can lead to unnoticed vision loss and is one of the most common causes of blindness in the industrialized world. The most important risk factor - and also the main goal of treatment - is intraocular pressure. Both medical and surgical procedures are available to lower intraocular pressure and thus treat glaucoma. Although many advances in treatment have been made in recent decades, the effectiveness of currently available therapies remains unsatisfactory. One possible reason for this lies in the insufficient understanding of the physiology of intraocular pressure. The aim of the current project is to gain a better understanding of intraocular pressure regulation. It focuses specifically on the so-called distal outflow resistance and episcleral venous pressure. This difficult-to-measure parameter has been insufficiently investigated in recent decades. New measurement methods in the project enable a more precise investigation than previously possible. The project investigates both basic regulatory mechanisms and new pharmacological approaches to influence episcleral venous pressure. In parallel, in-silico methods are used to try to make the findings usable for future simulation models.