Effects of hyperbaric oxygen on crystalline lens and retina in nicotine-exposed rats.
OBJECTIVE
To determine histopathological changes on crystalline lens and retina of rats after subcutaneous injection of nicotine and to examine the effects of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) on these changes related to nicotine exposure.


METHODS
Twenty-eight female Sprague-Dawley rats were enrolled in the study and the rats were divided into four equal sized groups randomly (Group N: the rats exposed only to nicotine, group HB: the rats received only HBO, group N+HB: the rats that underwent to nicotine injection and subsequently received HBO, group C: the control group that neither exposed to nicotine nor received HBO). The rats were sacrificed by decapitation method and all were enucleated immediately after scarification. Tissue samples from crystalline lens, lens capsule, and the retina from the right eyes of the rats were examined by light microscopy.


RESULTS
While the histological appearances of the retina and the lens was similar in group HB, group N+HB, and the control group; group N showed some pathological changes like decrement in the retinal ganglion cell density, atrophy of the retinal nerve fiber layer, congestion of the vessels in the optic nerve head, thinning of the internal plexiform layer, thinning of the lens capsule, and transformation of the anterior subcapsular epithelium into squamous epithelia.


CONCLUSIONS
Subcutaneous injection of nicotine was found to be related with some pathological changes in the retina and lens of the Sprague-Dawley rats. However HBO caused no significant negative effect. Furthermore, the histopathological changes related to nicotine exposure in the lens and retina of the rats recovered by the application of HBO.
Department of Ophthalmology, Medicine Faculty, Dicle University, Diyarbakir, Turkey. seyhmus21@hotmail.com
Seyhmus
S
Ari
Yusuf
Y
Nergiz
Abdullah Kürşat
AK
Cingü
Ahmet Engin
AE
Atay
Alparslan
A
Sahin
Yasin
Y
Cinar
Ihsan
I
Caca
D000818:Animals; D005128:Eye Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006931:Hyperbaric Oxygenation; D007908:Lens, Crystalline / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012160:Retina / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology
D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D009538:Nicotine