Figure 8.

Proposed cellular and molecular mechanism of clusterin‐mediated changes in actin contractile machinery and ECM‐based TM tissue stiffness and IOP regulation (created with BioRender.com). We found that pathological insults that can cause IOP elevation, negatively influence clusterin expression and secretion in TM. Using loss‐and gain‐of‐function studies in HTM cells in vitro, we identified that clusterin is an important cog in maintaining actin‐based contractile machinery and ECM production, secretion, and fibrogenic function. Complete loss of clusterin significantly increased the IOP defining a functional role of clusterin in the aqueous humor outflow physiology and IOP regulation. ECM, extracellular matrix; IOP, intraocular pressure; TM, trabecular meshwork