Abstract
Purpose :
To study the effect of plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF) under blue light conditions in an in vivo model of retinal degeneration after a medium-long term light exposure.
Methods :
Male Wistar rats were exposed to dark/blue light conditions for 30 days. At day 7, right eyes were injected with saline and left eyes with PRGF. Electroretinography (ERG) and intraocular pressure (IoP) measurements were performed before and after the experiment. After sacrifice, retinal samples were collected. Haematoxylin-eosin staining was performed to analyse the structure of retinal sections. Immunofluorescence for Brain-specific homeobox/POU domain protein 3A (Brn3a), Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), Rhodopsin, Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was performed to study the retinal conditions.
Results :
The results obtained by ERG showed that blue light reduced the retinal functionality. The use of PRGF at day 7 decreased the harmful effect of blue light after 30 days of light exposure. IoP measurements did not show significant differences among treatments. The immunohistological analysis performed showed that blue light changed the retinal structure and markers expression, which was counteracted by the treatment with PRGF.
Conclusions :
Blue light causes retinal degeneration. PRGF blunted the injury, restoring the functionality of these cells and maintaining the tissue integrity.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.