Regional Density of Collagen in the Sclera of Guinea pigs with Monocularly Form Visual Deprivation-induced Myopia

Purpose To investigate whether form visual deprivation alters the density of collagen in guinea pigs' sclera. Methods Newborn guinea pigs were monocularly lid-sutured. After 21 days of deprivation, the eyes were removed and dissected to provide scleral samples for anterior and posterior regions. Results The collagen density of sclera at the posterior regions of the deprived eyes were significantly smaller than that of untreated eyes and normal eyes ( P 0.001) . Those at the anterior region of all the experiment eyes had no statistical differences ( P 0.05). In form-vision deprived animals, the difference of the refractive status between the deprived eye and untreated eye was significantly correlated with that of the collagen density between the deprived eye and untreated eye (r = 0.866, P 0.001) . Conclusion Significantly lower level of collagen density in the posterior region suggests that collagen accumulation is preferentially reduced at the posterior region of deprived eyes.