Friday, December 18, 2020

Is Glaucoma Genetic?

 


While many disagree, most scientists and doctors believe that the two biggest eye conditions, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma have some correlation to genetics. Glaucoma is a disease that causes harm to the optic nerve and while there are many types of glaucoma, congenital glaucoma is caused by a mutation in two genes, CYP1B1 or LTBP2. Thus, mutations in these genes can lead to this condition being inherited in an autosomal recessive fashion, in which both parents would be carriers of the mutation but do not have glaucoma. While I do believe that this condition can be genetic, from the research I've done, I also firmly believe that this could be environmental as well. 

Sources: https://www.brightfocus.org/glaucoma/article/glaucoma-what-your-genetic-risk#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20we%20know%20that,but%20do%20not%20have%20glaucoma.

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