Noninfectious uveitis refers to a category of inflammatory diseases involving the uvea, with the exception of infectious factors or masquerade syndrome. The diagnosis and follow-up of noninfectious uveitis that involving retina or choroid require fundus imaging techniques. Fundus autofluorescence is a noninvasive imaging technique. Compared with fundus colorized photography, fundus fluorescein angiography and indocyanine green angiography, fundus autofluorescence indicates the functional status of retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptor cells in a better way, thus playing a role in the pathophysiological mechanisms investigating, early diagnosis, disease progression monitoring and prognosis estimating of noninfectious uveitis, such as Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease, Behçet disease, multifocal choroiditis, punctate inner choroidopathy, birdshot chorioretinopathy, multiple evanescent white dot syndrome, acute zonal occult outer retinopathy, acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy and serpiginous choroiditis.
Ras homolog family (Rho)/ Rho-associated coiled-coil kinase (ROCK) signaling pathway widely exists in human and mammal cells, which is closely related to inhibition of repair after optic nerve damage. The expression level of Rho/ROCK signaling pathway-related proteins is up-regulated in glaucoma, and related with the death of retinal ganglionic cell (RGC) and the axon activity. ROCK inhibitors can protect the surviving RGC and promote axon extension with a dose-dependent manner. ROCK inhibitors also can inhibit glial scar formation, lower intraocular pressure and inhibit inflammatory response to some degrees. Rho/ROCK signaling pathway correlates with the optic nerve disease progression, and ROCK inhibitors hope to become a new therapeutic drug.
Serum anti-retinal autoantibodies (ARA) are a group of autoantibodies that bind to retinal auto-antigens with significant biological importance in pathological processes such as retinal degeneration, inflammatory microenvironment formation, and tissue destruction. In recent years, the expression of serum anti-retinal antibodies has been found to be upregulated in patients with various blinding retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, autoimmune retinopathy, and retinitis pigmentosa, closely correlated with the progression of diseases. However, current researches on ARA are incomplete, lacking animal experiments and large randomized controlled clinical trials. As a result, the exact mechanism of ARA is not well understood. Although several studies have demonstrated that serum ARA has an important diagnostic value in hereditary, autoimmune, and degenerative retinal diseases, there still lacks recognized laboratory tests and laboratory indicators with high specificity and sensitivity. Clinical symptoms should be considered when making definitive diagnosis of the diseases. Therefore, clarifying the mechanisms of ARA in retinal dystrophies provides new ideas in early diagnosis and treatments of retinal diseases, which is clinically and scientifically important for the maintenance of visual functions.