The comparison of the RGCs changes of retina and the relationship with injury time after optic nerve transection/crush of rat

Objective To observe morphological features of retina and the alteration of counted number of retinal ganglion cells(RGCs) in rat retina at various intervals after optic nerve transection/crush,and study the relationship between the alteration and post-injury interval.Methods In this experiment,intraorbital optic nerve transection/crush model of rats was used.Paraffin section was cut after the test group rats were killed after various survival interval and the hemotoxylin and eosin(HE) staining was carried out meanwhile.The changes of retina was observed using light microscope.Results RGCs were reduced significantly due to optic nerve injury.An initial loss was accelerated by 2 week after optic nerve injury,RGCs lossed fastly and abruptly during 3 to 7 days after optic nerve injury,the later declines was protracted in RGCs densities.But three days later,in the optic nerve transection group,the counted number of RGCs lossed more obviously than the optic nerve crush group at various intervals.Conclusions Changes of morphology were observed in retina after optic nerve injury.There is a rule that the degree of the RGCs loss had a relationship with injury type and injury time,which will be of value in time estimation of optic nerve injury.