Research
Interests
Glaucoma
is a blinding disease characterized clinically by elevated intraocular
pressure, structural changes in the optic disc, and a progressive loss
of vision. A major focus of the research conducted in my laboratory has
been to define the temporal relation between the onset and progression
of glaucoma measured clinically, and the pattern of pressure-induced neuronal
degeneration that results in the retina. These studies have used an in
vitro retina preparation and combined intracellular labeling, confocal
microscopy, and video-enhanced image analysis techniques to compare the
morphologies of single retinal ganglion cells from normal and glaucomatous
eyes. These studies also have employed more traditional staining techniques
to examine the degenerative effects that occur in the dorsal lateral geniculate
nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus, the primary target of retinal afferents
in the primate visual system.
Ongoing
studies involve the use of standard electrophysiological techniques, and
are focused on understanding the structure/function relations of single
ganglion cells in the normal and glaucomatous eye. Additional studies
concern the development of treatment strategies aimed at mitigating or
preventing glaucoma-related retinal ganglion cell degeneration by the
delivery of neuroprotectants to the diseased eye and its target, the LGN.
These studies, which employ the use of a cat optic nerve crush model,
will serve to define the dose and delivery schedule necessary to prevent
retinal ganglion cell loss following mechanical damage to the optic nerve,
a mechanism thought to underlie glaucoma-related retinal ganglion cell
degeneration. Finally, immunocytochemical analyses of the retina and LGN
are being conducted to better understand the effect that damage to the
optic nerve has on non-neuronal cells in the retina.
Please
feel free to contact me if you have any questions about my research.
Selected Publications
Search all publications in the NCBI Journal Database
Weber, A.J. and C.D. Harman (2006) Differential effects of optic nerve injury and BDNF treatment on the dendritic fields of cat retinal ganglion cells. Exp. Eye Research (Submitted).
Weber, A.J. and C.D. Harman (2005) Structure-functions relations of parasol cells in the normal and glaucomatous primate retina. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 46:3197-3207.
Chen, H. and A.J. Weber (2004) Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) reduces tyrosine kinase B (trkB) receptor protein in the normal rat retina and following optic nerve damage. Brain Research 1011: 99-106.
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Arthur
J. Weber