ABSTRACT
Objective To observe the protective effect of progesterone(PROG) on rat retinal ganglion cells(RGCs) in chronic ocular hypertention models.Methods The chronic ocular hypertention rat model was made by cauterizating three episcleral veins.Rats were divided into control group,high level PROG group,middle level PROG group,low level PROG group according to different concentrations of PROG injected intraperitoneally.The left eye was model eye and the right eye was control eye.Three months later,the animals were executed and the eyeballs were enucleated.The RGCs were detected by HE staining and Thy-1.1 immunohistological staining.The apoptosis of RGCs was detected by TdT-dUDP terminal nick end-labeling(TUNEL) technique.Results The number of RGCs of model eyes in high level PROG injection group was more than those in control group,low level and middle level groups(P