The protective effects of αb-crystallin on ischemia-reperfusion injury in the rat retina

To investigate whether αb-crystallin protects against acute retinal ischemic reperfusion injury (i/r) and elucidate the potential antioxidant mechanisms. retinal i/r injury was made by elevating the intraocular pressure (iop) 110mmhg for 60 min,and αb-crystallin (1 × 10-5 g/l) or vehicle solution was administered intravitreously immediately after i/r injury. the animal was sacrificed 24 h,1 w,and 1m after the i/r injury. the retina damage was detected by hematoxylin and eosin (he) staining and electroretinography (erg). the level of malondialdehyde (mda),nitric oxide (no),and the total superoxide dismutase (t-sod) was determined. an immunohistochemical study was performed to detect the activation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (inos) and nf-(nuclear factor-) kappab (nf-κb) p65. the decrease of retinal thickness and the number of retinal ganglion cells (rgcs) can be suppressed by αb-crystallin. and the amplitudes of a- and b-wave were remarkably greater without αb-crystallin. similarly,αb-crystallin also significantly decreased the level of mda and no and enhanced the activities of t-sod. the positive expression of inos and nf-kappab p65 was obviously reduced while treated with αb-crystallin. αb-crystallin can inhibit the expression of nf-κb and its antioxidative effect to protect the retina from i/r injury. © 2017 huan yan et al.