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Retinal Degenerative Diseases pp 429–435Cite as

The Role of Microbiota in Retinal Disease

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Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1074))

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.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA-JM Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA), Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA

    Sheldon Rowan & Allen Taylor

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Sheldon Rowan & Allen Taylor

  3. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA

    Allen Taylor

Authors
  1. Sheldon Rowan
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  2. Allen Taylor
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sheldon Rowan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

    John D. Ash

  2. Ophthalmology and Cell Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

    Robert E. Anderson

  3. School of Medicine Beckman Vision Center, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Matthew M. LaVail

  4. Departments of Ophthalmology and Cell Biology, Duke Eye Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA

    Catherine Bowes Rickman

  5. Division of Ophthalmology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Joe G. Hollyfield

  6. Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Christian Grimm

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Rowan, S., Taylor, A. (2018). The Role of Microbiota in Retinal Disease. In: Ash, J., Anderson, R., LaVail, M., Bowes Rickman, C., Hollyfield, J., Grimm, C. (eds) Retinal Degenerative Diseases. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1074. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75402-4_53

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