A Study on the Changes in Blood-Retinal Barrier After Vitreal Injection of Silicone Oil in Rabbits

ABSTRACT

The blood-retinal barrier, that outward movement from the eye into the blood appears to predominate and the penetration into the eye of only a few important metabolic products is allowed, is particularly tight non-leaky junction on blood ocular barrier. In order to investigate the extent of destruction in blood retinal barrier after injection of silicone oil in the vitreous of the rabbit, author serially studied the change of fluorescein concentration in vitreous using the HPLC, ERG changes, and histopathologic changes of the retina. The results were belows, 1. The changes of fluorescein concentration in the vitreous showed increasing tendency, with time. The concentration of fluorescein were 0.008 micro/ml in 1st week, 0.069 micro/ml in 2nd week, 0.058 micro/ml in 3rd week, 0.325 micro/ml in 4th week, respectively. 2. The amplitude of photopic b wave in normal rabbit was lower than that of scotopic b wave, but there wasn't significant difference in latency between photopic and scotopic b wave. The amplitudes of b wave in silicone oil injected eyes showed lower voltage than that of normal eyes. 3. The amplitudes of b wave in silicone oil injected eyes were 210 micro V at 1st week, 150 micro V at 2nd week, 72 micro V at 3rd week, 63 micro V at 4th week in average. They showed prominent decrease in voltage from 1st week to 3rd week, but decreased slightly from 3rd week to 4th week. 4. Histopathologically, the retinal changes of the silicone oil injected eyes in 3rd week showed increased cellularity in ganglion cell layer and presented many vacuoles. In 4th week, ganglion cells were decreased but vacuoles were more increased in number.