"Working in mice, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine
in St. Louis have devised a treatment that prevents the optic nerve
injury that occurs in
glaucoma, a neurodegenerative disease that is a leading cause of blindness," reports
Medical News Today. "Researchers increased the resistance of optic nerve cells to damage by
repeatedly exposing the mice to low levels of oxygen similar to those
found at high altitudes. The
stress
of the intermittent low-oxygen environment induces a protective
response called tolerance that makes nerve cells - including those in
the eye - less vulnerable to harm.
The study, published online in
Molecular Medicine, is the first to show that tolerance induced by preconditioning can protect against a neurodegenerative disease."
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