Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 3, 2025
Intravitreous Injection for Establishing Ocular Diseases Model
Published on: October 1, 2007
Intravitreal Trans-Resveratrol Ameliorates NMDA-Induced Optic Nerve and Retinal Injury
Afiqq Aiman Abd Ghapor1, Igor Iezhitsa2,3, Renu Agarwal2
1Centre for Neuroscience Research (NeuRon), Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Selangor, Malaysia.
Purpose:
Retinal and optic nerve damage in glaucoma involves excitotoxicity via N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Since, trans-resveratrol (TR) is known to provide neuroprotection, we investigated its protective effects against NMDA-induced retinal and optic nerve injury.
Methods:
Sprague Dawley rats were divided into four groups which received vehicle (PBS), NMDA, and TR 0.4 or TR 4 nmol 24 h prior to NMDA, unilaterally and intravitreally. Seven days post-injection, rats were euthanized; eyeballs were enucleated and subjected to hematoxylin and eosin and terminal transferase dUTP nick end labeling staining while optic nerves were isolated for toluidine blue staining.
Results:
Retinal morphometry showed that ganglion cell layer (GCL) layer thickness within inner retina (IR), retinal cell count (RCC) per 100-µm length of GCL, RCC per 100-µm2 area of GCL, and RCC per 100 µm2 of IR were significantly higher in both TR-treated groups compared to the NMDA group. No differences were observed between the two dose groups. Optic nerve morphology was in accordance with the retinal morphology whereby TR-treated groups showed significantly lesser degenerative changes compared to NMDA-treated group.
Conclusions:
TR protects against NMDA-induced changes in retinal and optic nerve morphology by preventing retinal cell apoptosis.
