Researchers are looking at metabolites as possible biomarkers for glaucoma. National Eye Institute–funded research recently explored 369 blood metabolites in relation to glaucoma in a large study led by Louis Pasquale, MD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, in collaboration with Jae Hee Kang, ScD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.

Blood from 600 participants from the Nurses’ Health Studies and the Health Professionals’ Follow-up Study was used, and those who developed glaucoma after study enrollment were compared with a group of similar participants who did not, according to an NEI news release. The researchers found people with elevated triglycerides and diglycerides were more likely to develop glaucoma, and the association was strongest in a subtype of glaucoma that causes early central vision loss. They confirmed their findings in a cross-sectional analysis of data from the UK Biobank.