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Review
. 2023 Aug 28;24(17):13338.
doi: 10.3390/ijms241713338.

Targeting the Gut-Eye Axis: An Emerging Strategy to Face Ocular Diseases

Lucrezia Irene Maria Campagnoli  1 , Angelica Varesi  2 , Annalisa Barbieri  1 , Nicoletta Marchesi  1 , Alessia Pascale  1
Affiliations
Review

Targeting the Gut-Eye Axis: An Emerging Strategy to Face Ocular Diseases

Lucrezia Irene Maria Campagnoli et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

The human microbiota refers to a large variety of microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that live in different human body sites, including the gut, oral cavity, skin, and eyes. In particular, the presence of an ocular surface microbiota with a crucial role in maintaining ocular surface homeostasis by preventing colonization from pathogen species has been recently demonstrated. Moreover, recent studies underline a potential association between gut microbiota (GM) and ocular health. In this respect, some evidence supports the existence of a gut-eye axis involved in the pathogenesis of several ocular diseases, including age-related macular degeneration, uveitis, diabetic retinopathy, dry eye, and glaucoma. Therefore, understanding the link between the GM and these ocular disorders might be useful for the development of new therapeutic approaches, such as probiotics, prebiotics, symbiotics, or faecal microbiota transplantation through which the GM could be modulated, thus allowing better management of these diseases.

Keywords: age-related macular degeneration; diabetic retinopathy; dry eye disease; glaucoma; gut microbiota; gut–eye axis; ocular microbiota; probiotics; symbiotics; uveitis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Anatomy of the human eye. Figure created with BioRender.com (accessed on 27 July 2023) (license to S.C.).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Gut–eye axis and related main ocular diseases. Figure created with BioRender.com (accessed on 27 July 2023) (license to S.C.).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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