The Role of Inflammation in Retinal Neurodegeneration and Degenerative Diseases.

Retinal neurodegeneration is predominantly reported as the apoptosis or impaired function of the photoreceptors. Retinal degeneration is a major causative factor of irreversible vision loss leading to blindness. In recent years, retinal degenerative diseases have been investigated and many genes and genetic defects have been elucidated by many of the causative factors. An enormous amount of research has been performed to determine the pathogenesis of retinal degenerative conditions and to formulate the treatment modalities that are the critical requirements in this current scenario. Encouraging results have been obtained using gene therapy. We provide a narrative review of the various studies performed to date on the role of inflammation in human retinal degenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, inherited retinal dystrophies, retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt macular dystrophy, and Leber congenital amaurosis. In addition, we have highlighted the pivotal role of various inflammatory mechanisms in the progress of retinal degeneration. This review also offers an assessment of various therapeutic approaches, including gene-therapies and stem-cell-based therapies, for degenerative retinal diseases.

视网膜神经变性主要表现为光感受器的凋亡或功能受损。视网膜变性是导致不可逆性视力丧失乃至失明的一个主要病因。近年来，人们对视网膜变性疾病进行了研究，许多致病因素所涉及的基因和遗传缺陷已被阐明。为了确定视网膜变性疾病的发病机制，并制定在当前情况下至关重要的治疗方法，人们开展了大量研究。基因治疗已取得了令人鼓舞的成果。我们对迄今为止有关炎症在人类视网膜变性疾病（如年龄相关性黄斑变性、遗传性视网膜营养不良、色素性视网膜炎、斯塔加特黄斑营养不良和莱伯先天性黑矇）中作用的各项研究进行了叙述性综述。此外，我们强调了各种炎症机制在视网膜变性进展中的关键作用。本综述还对包括基因治疗和基于干细胞的治疗在内的各种治疗视网膜变性疾病的方法进行了评估。