The hypothesis that Ucp2 improves cell survival following a cellular stressor is also strongly supported by previous studies (Diano et al., 2003; Mattiasson et al., 2003; Andrews et al., 2005; Barnstable et al., 2016), but the novelty of our study is that in rodent models of glaucoma, RGC death is progressive over time (Huang et al., 2018), suggesting that Ucp2 is not exclusively protective during acutely stressful conditions, but also during sub-acute neurodegeneration, decreasing the accumulation of oxidative damage (Figure 6) and bead-induced RGC loss. The gene discussed is UCP2; the disease is glaucoma.