title: Visual performance in monosodium glutamate-treated rats.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of monosodium glutamate on the visual performance in rats. The Wistar strain of neonatal rats were injected subcutaneously with a solution of the glutamate at doses of 1 or 2 or 4 mg/gm body weight on days 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 postnatally. Control rats received an injection of physiological saline. At 1, 2 and 3 months of age, the rats were tested for visual performance (brightness discrimination, pattern discrimination and visual acuity). As a result, the 4 mg/gm glutamate treatment was observed to impair brightness discrimination performance at 1 month of age as compared to the control animals. This impairment was also observed in animals at 2 and 3 months as compared, in addition, to the values in other doses of glutamate treatment. Pattern discrimination performance in every group of animals was at the same level at 1 month of age. However, at 2 months of age, the performance in the 2- and 4 mg/gm glutamate-treated groups was lower than those in the control group. This comparison was more pronounced at 3 months of age. Visual acuity performance results were quite the same as the pattern discrimination performance at all ages of animals. In conclusion, glutamate treatment was shown to cause dose-dependent deficit in visual performance and this may reflect impairment of visual organs and brain function.
authors: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200 Thailand. cpraputp@med.cmu.ac.th
authors: Chucheep
authors: C
authors: Praputpittaya
authors: Anutape
authors: A
authors: Wililak
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D023421:Models, Animal; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012970:Sodium Glutamate / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000187:drug effects; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D012970:Sodium Glutamate