Advisory Committee Chair
Timothy Kraft
Advisory Committee Members
Clyde Guidry
Leo Semes
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2013
Degree Name by School
Master of Science (MS) School of Optometry
Abstract
The purpose of this project was to investigate the etiology of decreased cone-driven vision in the light damage model of retinal degenerations. Experimental albino rats underwent moderate, low-intensity light damage for 10 days. Electroretinography was utilized to assess physiologic function of the rod- and cone-driven retinal function in the experimental and control (sibling) rats. Immunohistochemical staining for cone arrestin antibody identified cone photoreceptors, allowing quantification of cone density and comparison to the decline in functional vision. In this experiment the light-damaged rats showed decreased rod- and cone-driven function with partial recovery of responses 30 days later. Outer nuclear layer thickness also decreased, as evident by optical coherence tomography and histology. LD rats showed decreased cone photoreceptor densities in the central retinal region compared to control rats. Therefore our results demonstrate that the loss of cone-driven visual function induced by light damage is at least partially due to death of cone photoreceptors.
Recommended Citation
Clark, Molly, "Comparisons between electrophysiologic assessments of visual function and histological findings of cone photoreceptors in light-damaged albino rats" (2013). All ETDs from UAB. 1388.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/1388