title: Effect of Monocular Deprivation on Rabbit Neural Retinal Cell Densities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the effect of monocular deprivation on densities of neural retinal cells in rabbits.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty rabbits, comprised of 18 subject and 12 control animals, were included and monocular deprivation was achieved through unilateral lid suturing in all subject animals. The rabbits were observed for three weeks. At the end of each week, 6 experimental and 3 control animals were euthanized, their retinas was harvested and processed for light microscopy. Photomicrographs of the retina were taken and imported into FIJI software for analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Neural retinal cell densities of deprived eyes were reduced along with increasing period of deprivation. The percentage of reductions were 60.9% (P < 0.001), 41.6% (P = 0.003), and 18.9% (P = 0.326) for ganglion, inner nuclear, and outer nuclear cells, respectively. In non-deprived eyes, cell densities in contrast were increased by 116% (P < 0.001), 52% (P < 0.001) and 59.6% (P < 0.001) in ganglion, inner nuclear, and outer nuclear cells, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this rabbit model, monocular deprivation resulted in activity-dependent changes in cell densities of the neural retina in favour of the non-deprived eye along with reduced cell densities in the deprived eye.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Philip Maseghe
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Mwachaka
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saidi
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Paul Ochieng
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Odula
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: Pamela Idenya
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Mandela
keywords: Deprivation; Monocular; Neural Retinal Cells