ABSTRACT
Objective To observe optic nerve axons degenerative disorder and microglial responses by establishing unilateral optic nerve crush model.Methods YFP mouse group with axonal markers and GFP mouse group with microglia markers were divided into surgery and control group,the optic nerve were dissected at 4 hours,1 day,3 days,5 days,10 days after optic nerve crush,and the neuronal degenerative disorder and microglial responses were observed by confocal laser scanning microscope.Rrsults Compared with control group,the optic nerve axons in YFP mouse group were fractured in injury region at postoperative 4 hours;The partial axon became beadlike change at postoperative 1 day;Most of the axons turned into the process of beadlike change at postoperative 3 days;The axons became to debris from beadlike at postoperative 5 days;The axons changed into many debris at postoperative 10 days.Compared with control group,the formation of glial scar and resting microglia in GFP mouse group began to emerge at postoperative 4 hours;The microglia gradually activated and began to cover the injury region at postoperative 1 day;The activated miacroglia basically covered the injury region at postoperative 3 days;The number of microglia roughly remained stable,although the axons continued to deteriorate at postoperative 5 days and 10 days.Conclusion The optic nerve occur irreversible degenerative disorder after being injured,meanwhile with the microglial increase and activation.This phenomenon suggests that microglia is closely associated with optic nerve degeneration.