Chronic bilateral common carotid artery occlusion: a model for ocular ischemic syndrome in the rat

Ocular ischemic syndrome is a devastating eye disease caused by severe carotid artery stenosis. The reduction of blood flow produced by bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) of rats for 7 days induces events related to gliosis with no evident histological damage. However, retinal degeneration and cellular death occur after 90 days of BCCAO. Our purpose has been to investigate the effects of BCCAO for 30 days in the retina of adult rats.

Adult Wistar rats were submitted to BCCAO or sham surgery. Both direct and consensual pupillary light reflexes were investigated before and after surgery, everyday for the first week and weekly for 30 days. After 1 month, eyes were enucleated and embedded in paraffin. The retinal ganglion cell (RGC) density and thickness of the internal plexiform (IPL), internal nuclear, outer plexiform, and outer nuclear layers were estimated.

Four rats of the BCCAO group (50%) lost the direct pupillary reflex in both eyes, three rats (37%) lost this reflex in one eye, and only one (13%) maintained it in both eyes. RGC density (cells/mm) was diminished in the BCCAO group, and a significant decrease was found in the total retina and IPL thickness; however, no changes were evident in the other layers. BCCAO pupillary-reflex-negative rats presented with a significant decrease in total retinal thickness and retinal ganglion cell density compared with the sham group. Both BCCAO pupillary-reflex-positive) and -negative rats showed a decrease in IPL compared with the sham group.

This study demonstrates that BCCAO for 30 days induces functional and morphological damage to the retina with loss of the pupillary reflex and a decrease in IPL thickness and RGC number. We suggest that this protocol might be used as a model for ocular ischemic syndrome in the rat.