The Reason Behind Permanent Vision Loss After Head Injury

Highlights

Head injury sometimes results in irreversible loss of vision.
The optic nerve that is responsible for passing information between the eyes and the brain is damaged.
Nerve cells in the brain die in response to the injury in the optic nerve. This type of injury is called traumatic optic neuropathy.

The Reason Behind Permanent Vision Loss After Head Injury

An injury in the head sometimes results in permanent vision loss. Research from The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston has shed new light on what causes the permanent vision loss.

When someone suffers a head trauma, sometimes there is damage to the optic nerve that is responsible for passing information between the eyes and the brain. When the optic nerve is injured, there are tears and swelling in the affected area that causes the nerve cells to die. This type of injury is called traumatic optic neuropathy, or TON, and results in irreversible vision loss.

Head Injury
Head injury or traumatic brain injury is a leading cause of disability among children and young adults that leads to varying degrees of physical and mental stability. Fortunately, it is also one of the preventable brain disorder.

‘Inflammation brought on by white blood cells play a role in head trauma-induced vision loss. Limiting inflammation could decrease nerve damage and preserve cell function.’

At this point, there is no effective treatment for TON and the mechanisms of the optic nerve cell death have been largely unclear.

Wenbo Zhang, UTMB associate professor in the department of ophthalmology & visual sciences, and his team found that inflammation brought on by white blood cells play a role in head trauma-induced vision loss. Limiting inflammation could decrease nerve damage and preserve cell function, researchers discovered.

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Brain damage caused by head injuries can be stopped in a surprising way - by stopping the body's immune system from killing its own brain cells, found scientists.

Inflammation is part of the body's defense system against injury and infection and is an important component of wound healing. White blood cells travel to injured areas to help repair the damaged tissue, causing inflammation in the process.

Excessive or uncontrolled inflammation can actually make injuries worse and contribute to disease in a couple of different ways - by activating cell death processes, clogging and rupturing blood vessels and producing toxic molecules like free radicals.

"Our data clearly showed that one of the protein receptors on white blood cells called CXCR3 brings white blood cells to the optic nerve in response to production of its binding partner CXCL10 by damaged nerve tissue," said Zhang.

"When we deleted CXCR3 or gave mice a drug that blocks the receptors following optic nerve damage, we observed fewer white blood cells on the scene by real-time noninvasive imaging, nerve damage was decreased and nerve cell function was preserved compared with mice that did not receive any intervention following injury."

Yonju Ha, a lead author of this article, said that further studies on this receptor and its role in white blood cell recruitment following tissue injury may aid in the development of new interventions for diseases associated with nerve injury, such as TON, stroke, diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.

Reference

Wenbo Zhang et al., UTMB researchers discover reason for permanent vision loss after head injury, American Journal of Pathology (2017) .

Source: Medindia

Childhood Head Injury may Up the Risk of Mental Illness, Premature Death
Brain injuries, including concussions in childhood, can increase the risk of mental illness, poor school attainment as well as premature death, finds a study.

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APA

Julia Samuel. (2017, February 10). The Reason Behind Permanent Vision Loss After Head Injury. Medindia. Retrieved on May 22, 2022 from https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/the-reason-behind-permanent-vision-loss-after-head-injury-167695-1.htm.
MLA

Julia Samuel. "The Reason Behind Permanent Vision Loss After Head Injury". Medindia. May 22, 2022. <https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/the-reason-behind-permanent-vision-loss-after-head-injury-167695-1.htm>.
Chicago
Julia Samuel. "The Reason Behind Permanent Vision Loss After Head Injury". Medindia. https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/the-reason-behind-permanent-vision-loss-after-head-injury-167695-1.htm. (accessed May 22, 2022).
Harvard
Julia Samuel. 2021. The Reason Behind Permanent Vision Loss After Head Injury. Medindia, viewed May 22, 2022, https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/the-reason-behind-permanent-vision-loss-after-head-injury-167695-1.htm.