[An experimental study of therapeutic effect of basic fibroblast growth factor on experimental retinal ischemia/reperfusion injury].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the therapeutic effect of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) injected into the vitreous cavity on experimental retinal ischemia/reperfusion injury. METHOD: The Wistar rat model of experimental retinal ischemia/reperfusion injury was made by increasing the intraocular pressure. The rats were divided into normal, ischemia and treatment groups randomly. At the beginning of reperfusion, normal saline was injected into the vitreous cavity in ischemia group and 2 micro g of bFGF was injected into the treatment group. The histological and ultrastructural changes in retina of different time after reperfusion were observed. The retinal ganglion cell number was counted by using microscope. The thickness of inner layer of retina was measured by using Image Diagnosis System. RESULT: In the early period of retinal ischemia/reperfusion injury, the edematous status of retina of treatment group was lighter than that of the ischemia group. The retinal inner layer thickness and the RGC number of treatment group were greater than that of the ischemia group during all the post-reperfusion stages. At 168 hours after reperfusion, the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer and the RGC numbers of ischemia groups were obviously lower than that of the normal groups. But the differences of thickness of the nerve fiber layer and RGC number between the treatment and normal group were of no statistical importance. The nuclear membranes of RGCs were edematous and the mitochondrial cristae were unclear at 24th hour after reperfusion, the apoptotic body can be found, and the microtubules in nerve fibers became unclear and even disappeared in the ischemic group. While in the treatment group, the nucleus was clear, only part of the nuclear membrane was edematous, the cell organs were abundant and the structures of mitochondria and microtubules were clear. CONCLUSION: Injection of bFGF into the vitreous cavity has the therapeutic effect on experimental retinal ischemia/reperfusion injury.