Toxicity study of erucylphosphocholine in a rat model.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of intraocular erucylphosphocholine (ErPC) on the retina, the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), and the choroid in an in vivo rat model.


METHODS
Adult male Brown Norway rats were injected intravitreally with ErPC dissolved in balanced salt solution (BSS) at a final concentration of 10 or 100 microM with BSS serving as control. Adverse effects on the anterior and posterior segment were assessed by slit-lamp biomicroscopy and ophthalmoscopy. Retinal toxicity was assessed by electroretinography (ERG), retinal ganglion cell (RGC) quantification, and histology 7 days after intravitreal administration of ErPC.


RESULTS
There was neither a statistically significant difference in the clinical examination nor in the ERG waves of treated versus control rats 7 days after intravitreal administration of ErPC. Correspondingly, the number of RGC after BSS injection did not differ significantly from ErPC-injected animals. Histologic sections of the posterior segment of 10 and 100 microM ErPC-injected rats did not show any signs of retinal toxicity. Electron microscopy did not display a difference between the 10 microM and the control group. Only the 100 microM-injected animals showed a discrete irregularity of the Müller cell and the retinal ganglion cell cytoplasm at the ultrastructural level.


CONCLUSIONS
ErPC can safely be injected into the vitreous of adult rats at a concentration of 10 microM without any retinal toxicity. Even a 10-fold increase in ErPC concentration leads only to a discrete cytoplasmic irregularity of the innermost retinal layers.
Schuettauf
Frank
F
Department of Ophthalmology, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany.
Eibl
Kirsten H
KH
Thaler
Sebastian
S
Shinoda
Kei
K
Rejdak
Robert
R
May
C Albrecht
CA
Blatsios
Georgios
G
Welge-Lussen
Ulrich
U
D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D002829:Choroid / Q000187:drug effects*; D004596:Electroretinography / Q000187:drug effects; D007267:Injections; D008297:Male; D010767:Phosphorylcholine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000633:toxicity; D010857:Pigment Epithelium of Eye / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats; D011914:Rats, Inbred BN; D012160:Retina / Q000187:drug effects*; D014822:Vitreous Body
D010767:Phosphorylcholine; C075010:erucylphosphocholine