Abstract
Purpose :
Lens opacity is induced by various issues, including genetic, developmental, and environmental cues. It is sometimes difficult to discriminate the lens opacity formed with short-term from the cataract that cloudy lens impairs vision. To investigate conditions which cause temporal lens opacity, we tested chemical and physical factors such as a dose of anesthesia reagent and eye dry up by using optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Methods :
To exam if dose of anesthesia reagent affect lens opacity, BL6/N mice were anesthetized with increased concentration of zoletil (32 ~ 48 mg/mL, intraperitoneal injection) and xylazine (8 ~ 16 mg/mL, intraperitoneal injection) mixture. Pupils were dilated with tropicamide. Lens opacities of mouse were documented in every 5 minutes with OCT, once full dilation has checked. To make dry condition of mouse ocular surface (dryness of cornea) during documentation for a total 20 minutes, mouse eyes were treated with or without a refresh reagent. We also investigated the effect of light intensity to the lens opacity formation by regulating the level of light source from the OCT.
Results :
Different levels of lens cloudy were assessed and graded with level from 1 to 5. We observed the ocular surface dryness facilitates the lens opacity compared to the wet condition. Moreover lens opacity formation in the condition of dry ocular surface was not affected by different anesthesia dose. Interestingly, eye dryness additionally exposed with higher intensity light showed similar to the result from dry condition with lower light intensity, suggesting level of light intensity was not related to the lens opacity formation.
Conclusions :
We tested formation of lens opacity under various condition; dose of anesthesia, wet/dry of ocular surface, and light intensity. Results showed that the condition of ocular surface (dryness of cornea) is a main factor facilitating the progression of lens opacity. Importantly we found the condition and developed a protocol not causing the cataract but inducing temporal lens opacity.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.