Abstract
Purpose :
Retinal neurodegeneration disease is one of the leading causes of vision loss, with limited therapeutic advances in treatment. Recently, low- intensity ultrasound(US) has been used as a treatment application. protect retinal ganglion cells from optic nerve injury. Whether ultrasound stimulation protects against degeneration of the injured optic nerve will be verified in this article.
Methods :
Low frequency ultrasound at 3.3Mhz, and high frequency ultrasound at 20Mhz ultrasound transducer were used to investigate the repairing effect of ultrasound on the optic nerve by stimulating the injured visual nerve in the fundus in front of the eye. The optical nerve was first slightly crash by the tweezers, then the pattern ERG, OCT was used to test the function of the retina, and visual cortex electrophysiological signal was used to evaluate the optic nerve function after US stimulation. They were tested after the stimulation everyday.
Results :
The results of P-ERG showed that within 10 days after ONC, the rats without any stimulation had the smallest N95 point amplitude, the rats in the normal group had the highest amplitude, and the rats stimulated by ultrasound had the amplitude in between, and they did not differ significantly. The OCT results in Figure b show the most severe degeneration of the GCL in the rats without stimulation and less degeneration of the GCL in the rats that received ultrasound stimulation. The electrophysiological signal of the visual cortex in Figure c shows a significant decrease in action potential amplitude in the non-stimulated rat group and a non-significant decrease in amplitude in the rats that received ultrasound stimulation.
Conclusions :
Ultrasound stimulation protects the optic nerve from degeneration, which is reflected in the delayed loss of retinal function, less thinning of retina thickness, and helps retain signal transmission to the visual center through the optic nerve.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.