{"doi":"10.26508/lsa.202301976","title":"Vitamin C protects retinal ganglion cells via SPP1 in glaucoma and after optic nerve damage","abstract":"Glaucoma is a common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by retinal ganglion cell death, astrocyte reactivity in the optic nerve, and vision loss. Currently, lowering the intraocular pressure (IOP) is the first-line treatment, but adjuvant neuroprotective approaches would be welcome. Vitamin C possesses neuroprotective activities that are thought to be related to its properties as a co-factor of enzymes and its antioxidant effects. Here, we show that vitamin C promotes a neuroprotective phenotype and increases gene expression related to neurotropic factors, phagocytosis, and mitochondrial ATP production. This effect is dependent on the up-regulation of secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1) in reactive astrocytes via the transcription factor E2F1. SPP1 + astrocytes in turn promote retinal ganglion cell survival in a mouse model of glaucoma. In addition, oral administration of vitamin C lowers the IOP in mice. This study identifies an additional neuroprotective pathway for vitamin C and suggests a potential therapeutic role of vitamin C in neurodegenerative diseases such as glaucoma.","journal":"Life Science Alliance","year":2023,"id":337241,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":18,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9459,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":813237,"name":"Tatjana Jakobs","orcid":"0000-0002-8104-9206","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":459057,"name":"Song Li","orcid":"0000-0002-0661-4893","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":67,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:10:26.690308Z","pmid":"37160307","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}