HISTOCHEMICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE CYTOCHROME OXIDASE OF RAT RETINAL GANGLION CELLS BY ACUTE EXPERIMENTAL ELEVATION OF INTRAOCULAR PRESSURE / 解剖学报

ABSTRACT

The changes of cytochrome oxidase activity of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) caused by the artificial high intraocular pressure (HIOP) was presented in this paper. Normal saline was injected into the anterior chamber of the right eye of 36 rats. that resulted in an intraocular pressure up to 60 mmHg for 3 hours. The experimental rats were divided into 0-, 3- and 7-day groups according to their survival time. Both retinae of each rat were whole mounted on the same slide, the left one being used as control. Thirty-six pairs of retina were treated with the modified cytochrome oxidase (CCO) histochemical technique under similar conditions. The high CCO activity of RGC were counted. The extinction of the cytoplasm of RGC, which indicates the degree of CCO activity, was measured with microphotometer. As compared with the normal eyes, the high CCO activity RGC of experimental eyes were reduced significantly. It was found that the high CCO activity of RGC in the temporal side of retina has been reduced much more than that of the nasal side. However, the high CCO activity of RGC in 3- and 7-day groups were more than that of 0-day group, the extinction of CCO activity of RGC in 7-day group was lower than that of the 3-day group. These facts showed that the CCO activity might restore in various degrees followed by a longer survival time. This experiment emphasized the fact that the HIOP led to metabolic changes of RGC, which may be of value to the study of glaucoma.