Photoreceptors are preferentially affected in the rat retina following permanent occlusion of the carotid arteries.
Carotid artery occlusion (two vessel occlusion; 2-VO) for 3 or 9 months causes a suppression of the electroretinogram. However, after 3 months the retinal morphology appears unaffected judging from the localisation of GABA, ChAT, alpha PKC, Thy-1 and GFAP immunoreactivities. Moreover, no difference in NMDA-R1, opsin or Thy-1 mRNA levels were detected. In contrast, after 9 months 2-VO photoreceptor degeneration occurred as indicated by thinning of the outer nuclear layer and reduced Ret-P1 immunoreactivity. All other immunoreactivities appeared normal. These findings were supported by analysis of retinal mRNA levels. We conclude that the major effect of prolonged 2-VO is photoreceptor degeneration.
Osborne
N N
NN
Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Oxford University, UK. neville.osborne@eye.ox.ac.uk
Safa
R
R
Nash
M S
MS
D000818:Animals; D016893:Carotid Stenosis / Q000473:pathology*; D016923:Cell Death; D004596:Electroretinography; D020419:Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate / Q000473:pathology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction