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Abstract
Mature Osborne-Mendel and spontaneously hypertensive Wistar rats demonstrate a high incidence of retinal degeneration. We have examined animals from the two strains and found no differences in the histopathologic development of the disease. All of the affected rats showed more or less advanced stages of a degenerative process initiated by disintegration and disappearance of outer segments and progressing to destruction of all photoreceptor cells. There was no indication that the hypertensive state influenced the retinal degeneration in the Wistar colony. The severity of degeneration at a given age varied widely in both Osborne-Mendel and hypertensive Wistar rats, suggesting that the onset or rate of progression of the disease differed from animal to animal within the strains.