A model of retinal ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats by subconjunctival injection of endothelin-1

Koichi Masuzawa, Subrina Jesmin, Seiji Maeda, Yuichi Kaji, Tetsuro Oshika, Sohel Zaedi, Nobutake Shimojo, Naoko Yaji, Takashi Miyauchi*, Katsutoshi Goto

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The retinal ischemia-reperfusion model is used in the study of transient ischemia-related diseases, such as central retinal artery occlusion, angle-closure glaucoma, and others. There are two methods for experimentally producing an ischemia-reperfusion model in the rat retina: (i) the intraocular pressure is greatly raised by increasing the height of the infusion bottle connected with the needle in the anterior chamber; or (ii) the blood vessel that accompanies the optic nerve in retina is ligated. However, each method has some drawbacks. For example, in the first method, the needle must be fixed in the anterior chamber for 1 hr, thus, the technique is not stable and mechanical damage to ocular structures sometimes occurs. In the second method, because of the unavoidable involvement of the optic nerve, damage to the nerve induces retinal changes unrelated to ischemia. In this study, we injected endothelin (ET)-1 under the conjunctiva of the eyeball (subconjunctival injection), and evaluated whether a retinal ischemia-reperfusion model could be generated by this method, simply and noninvasively. We injected 4 × 10-5 M ET-1 solution into the right eye of the rat and injected a control vehicle (artificial tears) into the left eye. From 5-60 mins after the injection, 50 mg/ml fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-dextran was injected to the left ventricle of heart. Then, the retina was removed and flat mounted. We compared the perfusion conditions of the FITC-dextran to each retina in the right and left eye. There was a complete perfusion of FITC-dextran in the retinal main artery, vein, and the capillary vessels in all of the control eyes. However, perfusion could not be completely observed in the ET-1 injected eye from 5-35 mins after injection; afterwards, the flow was returned. This method of subconjunctival injection of ET-1 is, thus, a feasible technical option for producing a retinal ischemia-reperfusion model in rat.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1085-1089
Number of pages5
JournalExperimental Biology and Medicine
Volume231
Issue number6
Publication statusPublished - 2006 Jun
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Endothelin-1
  • Ischemia-reperfusion injury
  • Rat
  • Retina
  • Subconjunctival injection

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)

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