The neural retina is a part of the central nervous system. As it lacks regenerative capacity, in an event of injury or disease, neuronal loss leads to visual impairment and often to blindness. Moreover, Müller glia (MG), the predominant glia in the retina, undergo a variety of molecular and cellular changes and discontinue to carry out their important regular functions in the tissue (e.g., maintaining tissue homeostasis and nurturing neurons). They form the glial scar, a barrier that prevents any form of regeneration and represents a big obstacle for regenerative medicine, in particular for transplantation approaches (Bringmann et al., 2006). For decades, researchers have studied the processes of neurodegeneration and gliosis in the retina, which are very similar to the degenerative events in other brain areas. To this end, urgent questions are: What is happening in MG during gliosis and can the glial scar be prevented or reversed, and if so, how. MG have been monitored and described in different injury/disease models including acute and chronic phases. Various cell markers, cell signaling molecules and pathways have been identified. However, in order to understand which factors are regulating the expression of these molecules, transcriptional and translational regulators need also to be included. A molecule group that gains more and more importance, not only in understanding the regulatory network of particular cellular processes, but also in manipulating them, are microRNAs (miRNAs). miRNAs are inhibitors of protein translation. They bind to mRNA molecules and induce either their destabilization or their decay. Since miRNAs regulate cell cycle events as well as cell death, they play a significant role in cell degeneration and predominantly in cancer (64,345 PubMed entries from 2002–2021). In cancer research, miRNAs did not only gain substantial importance as biomarkers for diagnostics, there is also an increasing interest in the pharmaceutical industry of this "young and relatively immature field of utilizing miRNAs as a therapeutic tool", with first clinical trials on their way (Bonneau et al., 2019).

Stefanie Gabriele Wohl

The State University of New York,College of Optometry,Department of Biological and Vision Sciences,New York,NY,USA

中国神经再生研究（英文版）

[1]Stefanie Gabriele Wohl-.View on microRNAs as a potential tool to fight blindness: focus on Müller glia and gliosis)[J].中国神经再生研究（英文版）,2022(07):1501-1502

gliosis,discontinue,Bringmann,Bonneau

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