Disk-shedding in the rat retina: lithium dampens the circadian rhythm but potentiates the light response.
Disk-shedding in the rat retina undergoes a circadian rhythm. Chronic lithium treatment significantly dampens the rhythm in constant darkness, but does not alter the timing or amplitude of the peak in a light-dark cycle. Lithium potentiates light-elicited disk-shedding with a maximal effect at the end of the subjective light phase, when light alone evokes only a moderate response. Although serum lithium levels show a diurnal variation, retinal lithium concentration remains high throughout 24 h. Thus lithium induces alterations in retinal rhythms as well as in photoreceptor metabolism.
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Zürich, Switzerland.
C E
CE
Remé
U
U
Braschler
A
A
Wirz-Justice
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K
Munz
D000818:Animals; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000187:drug effects*; D008094:Lithium / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010786:Photoreceptor Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D012160:Retina / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure
D008094:Lithium