title: The Connective Tissue Components of Optic Nerve Head Cupping in Monkey Experimental Glaucoma Part 1: Global Change.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize optic nerve head (ONH) connective tissue change within 21 monkey experimental glaucoma (EG) eyes, so as to identify its principal components.
  
  
  METHODS
  Animals were imaged three to five times at baseline then every 2 weeks following chronic unilateral IOP elevation, and euthanized early through end-stage confocal scanning laser tomographic change. Optic nerve heads were serial-sectioned, three-dimensionally (3D) reconstructed, delineated, and quantified. Overall EG versus control eye differences were assessed by general estimating equations (GEE). Significant, animal-specific, EG eye change was required to exceed the maximum physiologic intereye differences in six healthy animals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall EG eye change was significant (P < 0.0026) and animal-specific EG eye change most frequent, for five phenomena (number of EG eyes and range of animal-specific change): posterior laminar deformation (21, -29 to -437 μm), laminar thickening (11, 20-73 μm) and thinning (3, -23 to -31 μm), scleral canal expansion (17, 20-139 μm), outward anterior (16, -16 to -124 μm) and posterior (17, -22 to -279 μm) laminar insertion migration, and peripapillary scleral bowing (11, 21-77 μm). Experimental glaucoma versus control eye laminar thickness differences were bimodal in behavior, being thickened in most EG eyes demonstrating the least deformation and less thickened or thinned in most EG eyes demonstrating the greatest deformation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our postmortem studies retrospectively identify five connective tissue components of ONH "cupping" in monkey EG which serve as targets for longitudinally staging and phenotyping ONH connective tissue alteration within all forms of monkey and human optic neuropathy.
authors.affiliation: Devers Eye Institute, Optic Nerve Head Research Laboratory, Legacy Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States 2Devers Eye Institute, Discoveries in Sight Research Laboratories, Legacy Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States.
authors.forename: Hongli
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Devers Eye Institute, Optic Nerve Head Research Laboratory, Legacy Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States 2Devers Eye Institute, Discoveries in Sight Research Laboratories, Legacy Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States.
authors.forename: Ruojin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Devers Eye Institute, Optic Nerve Head Research Laboratory, Legacy Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States 2Devers Eye Institute, Discoveries in Sight Research Laboratories, Legacy Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States.
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lockwood
authors.affiliation: Devers Eye Institute, Optic Nerve Head Research Laboratory, Legacy Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States 2Devers Eye Institute, Discoveries in Sight Research Laboratories, Legacy Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States.
authors.forename: Galen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Libertiaux
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
authors.forename: Crawford
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Downs
authors.affiliation: Devers Eye Institute, Discoveries in Sight Research Laboratories, Legacy Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States.
authors.forename: Stuart K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Gardiner
authors.affiliation: Devers Eye Institute, Optic Nerve Head Research Laboratory, Legacy Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States 2Devers Eye Institute, Discoveries in Sight Research Laboratories, Legacy Research Institute, Portland, Oregon, United States.
authors.forename: Claude F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Burgoyne
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003238:Connective Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005901:Glaucoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007429:Intraocular Pressure; D008252:Macaca fascicularis; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D009898:Optic Disk / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology*; D009901:Optic Nerve Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012590:Sclera / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology*