Researchers from LSU Health New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence and the University of Copenhagen offer the first evidence that patients with ocular hypertension may exhibit superior antioxidant protection that promotes resistance to the elevated IOP associated with glaucoma. Their findings have been published online in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.

The paper reports the discovery of a new mechanism to explain why patients with ocular hypertension do not have glaucoma. This is the first study evaluating oxidative stress and antioxidative agents in patients with normal-tension glaucoma and ocular hypertension during oxidative stress.

The authors found that patients with ocular hypertension have increased antioxidant capacity and higher levels of anti-inflammatory, omega-3 derived chemical messengers involved in sustaining cell function in their plasma compared to patients with normal-tension glaucoma and age-matched controls. The abundance of these omega-3 fatty acid chemical messengers provides antioxidant defense and, as a consequence, potential resistance to elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) and glaucomatous neurodegeneration by eliminating increases in systemic oxidative stress.

“The study opens avenues of therapeutic exploration highlighting the significance of the omega-3 fatty acid chemical messengers’ antioxidant capacity as a potential diagnostic biomarker and as a novel treatment to prevent glaucomatous neurodegeneration,” said Nicolas G. Bazan, MD, PhD, Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, in a news release.