SUMMARY

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world, affecting approximately 80 million people by the year 2020. This degenerative optic neuropathy is characterized by retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death, optic nerve damage, and progressive vision loss. While the exact etiology remains elusive, elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is a known risk factor and lowering IOP remains the only effective treatment. Elevated IOP causes deformation and remodeling of the optic nerve head (ONH) tissues, which in turn is thought to lead to localized neurodegeneration. Computational and ex vivo studies have shown that scleral stiffness strongly influences deformation of the ONH, and that increasing the stiffness of the portion of the sclera surrounding the ONH (the peripapillary sclera) can significantly reduce these excessive strains. We hypothesize that by crosslinking the collagenous peripapillary sclera, we will reduce mechanical deformation in the ONH, which will in turn provide neuroprotection to mitigate glaucomatous vision loss. To investigate this hypothesis, we will develop and evaluate the efficacy of a nontoxic scleral stiffening treatment in a commonly-used rat model of glaucoma, which will lay the foundation for future glaucoma therapies.