FOR 1075: Regulation and Pathology of Homeostatic Processes for Visual Function

眼睛是人类最重要的感觉器官。因此，失明和视力丧失是严重影响患者残疾并导致生活质量严重下降的疾病。根据世界卫生组织的定义，德国的盲人人数为16.4万人，而视力障碍者则超过100万人。最常见的致病疾病是年龄相关性黄斑变性（AMD）、青光眼、糖尿病性视网膜病变和遗传性视网膜营养不良症。前三种疾病随着年龄的增长而更常见。由于近年来预期寿命大大增加，我们有理由认为，德国的盲人和视力障碍者的数量在未来几年将大幅增加。为了制定更好、更有效的治疗策略，迫切需要对导致视力丧失的分子因素进行基础研究。这是雷根斯堡大学研究部门的目标。这项研究的基础是观察到，这些经常导致视力丧失的疾病有一个共同点，即视网膜神经细胞的持续死亡。视网膜神经细胞的死亡主要是辅助系统或体内平衡系统持续失效的结果。这些系统包括脉管系统和血流、眼压和免疫系统，它们都是维持神经元复杂代谢需求和保持它们存活所必需的。雷根斯堡大学（University of Regensburg）以多学科方法研究稳态系统，最终目标是揭示视网膜神经元细胞死亡的原因，并开发新的更好的治疗策略。研究股的成员是来自三个不同院系的实验室，如自然科学第三院系（人体解剖学）、医学院（眼科、人类遗传学和神经病学）和哲学第二院系（心理学）。

The eye is the most important sensory organ in humans. Accordingly, blindness and vision loss are diseases that severely handicap affected patients and lead to a massive loss of quality of life. According to the definition of the World Health Organisation, the number of blind people in Germany is at 164 000, while more than a million are visually handicapped. The most common causative diseases are age-related macula degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and the group of hereditary retinal dystrophies. The first three of the diseases occur more commonly with increasing age. Since life expectancy has considerably increased over recent years, it is reasonable to assume that the number of blind and visually handicapped people in Germany will substantially increase in the years to come. Basic research on the molecular factors that cause loss of vision is critically needed, in order to develop better and more effective therapeutic strategies. This is the goal of the Research Unit at the University Regensburg. The research effort is based on the observation that the diseases, which frequently lead to vision loss, have in common the continuing cell death of nerve cells in the retina. Retinal nerve cell death is primarily the result of the continuous failure of auxiliary or homeostatic systems. Such systems include vasculature and blood flow, intraocular pressure and the immune system, which are all critically needed to maintain the complex metabolic requirements of neurons and to keep them alive. At the University of Regensburg, homeostatic systems are investigated in a multidisciplinary approach, with the final goal to uncover the reasons for cell death of neurons in the retina, and to develop novel and better therapeutic strategies. Members of the Research Unit are laboratories from three different faculties such as the faculty for natural sciences III (human anatomy), the medical faculty (ophthalmology, human genetics and neurology) and the philosophical faculty II (psychology).