[Local senile ocular amyloidosis in the pathogenesis of open-angle glaucoma and pseudo-exfoliative syndrome].

A total of 173 biopsy samples of the iris and drainage apparatus obtained at anti-glaucoma operations from 115 patients, aged 32 to 90, with primary open-angle glaucoma and pseudoexfoliative syndrome of different severity degrees were morphologically examined. Similar anatomofunction embryological peculiarities of the eye and brain create prerequisites for the development, in the eye, of processes analogical to Alzheimer's disease. Amyloid angiopathy of the iris is a key element of ischemia, which triggers the mechanisms of apoptosis and lipid peroxidation in the pigment epithelium membranes; this process is accompanied by an intensified synthesis and conformation of fibrous structures of tauprotein and beta-amyloid. Defradation of melanin and proteoglycans leads to the formation of neurotoxic metabolites. The above processes result in suppressing the protective antioxidant reactions as well as in blocking, by fibrous structures, the cellular cytoplasm and extracellular matrix.