EVs in the retina: Shining light on extracellular vesicles

Abstract

The present review presents the current knowledge on extracellular vesicle biology in the retina, a highly structured part of the central nervous system that is at the same time easily accessible. Numbers of publications in the field are rapidly rising, but most studies focus on extracellular vesicles as biomarkers for retinal diseases or as putative therapeutic targets. However, rather little has been done so far to elucidate the physiological functions of EVs in the retina. Even though it is clear that all the characteristic functions of EVs such as cell-cell communication, waste removal, extracellular matrix turnover, immune modulation etc. are of extreme importance in retinal tissue with its enormous metabolic turn-over and the need to orchestrate broad adaptation to different conditions such as light and dark with as little disturbance of the light path as possible.