ABSTRACT
@#Pathological elevation of intraocular pressure(IOP)is the most prevalent risk factor in the development and progress of glaucoma. Up to date, all treatments for glaucoma are aimed to lower IOP through surgeries and drugs. Prostaglandin analogues are the first-line IOP-lowing drugs for glaucoma due to their ability to reduce IOP. Enough evidences have suggested that they increase aqueous humor outflow through uveoscleral pathway. More recently, people found that bimatoprost was able to increase aqueous humor outflow through trabecular meshwork-Schlemm's canal pathway. Nowadays, a large number of studies are performed to study the mechanism of prostaglandin analogues on lowing intraocular pressure.
ABSTRACT
It is to discuss the method for studying uveoscleral pathway and the influence of uveoscleral outflow on aqueous humor drainage. Seventeen rabbits were randomly divided into the flow group that included 5 rabbits and the morphological group that included 12. Fluorescein-isothiocyanate bovine serum albumin (FITC-BSA) was perfused into anterior chambers of flow group rabbit eyes as the tracer for measuring uveoscleral outflow. This tracer was infused into anterior chambers of morphological group rabbit eyes for observing fluorescent intensity of all tissue of the uveoscleral pathway with fluorescence microscopy. Fluorescence was seen in all sites of uveoscleral pathway. The fluorescent intensity of ciliary body and suprachoroidal space was significantly stronger than that of anterior sclera (P＜0.05). The intensity of choroid and posterior sclera was significantly weaker than that of other tissues (P＜0.05). The average value of uveoscleral outflow was (0.18±0.031) μl/min. This study demonstrates that uveoscleral pathway plays an important role in aqueous humor drainage. Anterior sclera is the main site where aqueous humor flows out. FITC-BSA is an effective tracer for studying uveoscleral pathway from both morphological and functional aspects.