BAX and glaucoma: Because glaucomatous DBA/2 J mice, an extensively characterized strain that spontaneously develops elevated IOP with aging21, show the structural and functional abnormalities of ONH astrocytes in glaucoma progression3,5,6, we used DBA/2 J mice to determine whether glaucomatous ONH astrocytes alters the expression levels of cAMP, Bax and caspase-3 protein.