Understanding glaucomatous damage: anatomical and functional data from ocular hypertensive rodent retinas |
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Authors: | Vidal-Sanz Manuel Salinas-Navarro Manuel Nadal-Nicolás Francisco M Alarcón-Martínez Luis Valiente-Soriano F Javier de Imperial Jaime Miralles Avilés-Trigueros Marcelino Agudo-Barriuso Marta Villegas-Pérez Maria P |
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Affiliation: | a Departamento de Oftalmología, Facultad de Medicina, Campus Universitario de Espinardo, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Espinardo, Murcia, Spain b Unidad de Investigación, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca, Servicio Murciano de Salud, Fundación para la Formación e Investigación Sanitarias de la Región de Murcia, 30120 Murcia, Spain |
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Abstract: | Glaucoma, the second most common cause of blindness, is characterized by a progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells and their axons, with a concomitant loss of the visual field. Although the exact pathogenesis of glaucoma is not completely understood, a critical risk factor is the elevation, above normal values, of the intraocular pressure. Consequently, deciphering the anatomical and functional changes occurring in the rodent retina as a result of ocular hypertension has potential value, as it may help elucidate the pathology of retinal ganglion cell degeneration induced by glaucoma in humans. This paper predominantly reviews the cumulative information from our laboratory’s previous, recent and ongoing studies, and discusses the deleterious anatomical and functional effects of ocular hypertension on retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in adult rodents. In adult rats and mice, perilimbar and episcleral vein photocauterization induces ocular hypertension, which in turn results in devastating damage of the RGC population. In wide triangular sectors, preferentially located in the dorsal retina, RGCs lose their retrograde axonal transport, first by a functional impairment and after by mechanical causes. This axonal damage affects up to 80% of the RGC population, and eventually causes their death, with somal and intra-retinal axonal degeneration that resembles that observed after optic nerve crush. Importantly, while ocular hypertension affects the RGC population, it spares non-RGC neurons located in the ganglion cell layer of the retina. In addition, functional and morphological studies show permanent alterations of the inner and outer retinal layers, indicating that further to a crush-like injury of axon bundles in the optic nerve head there may by additional insults to the retina, perhaps of ischemic nature. |
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Keywords: | Intraocular pressure Optic nerve damage Glaucomatous optic neuropathy Retinal ganglion cells Ocular hypertension Retinal degeneration Glaucoma |
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