Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, Vol 19, 244-255, Copyright © 1980 by Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology

ARTICLES AND REPORTS

Breakdown of the normal optic nerve head blood-brain barrier following acute elevation of intraocular pressure in experimental animals

RL Radius and DR Anderson

Five hours of elevated intraocular pressure produced evidence of an altered blood-brain barrier at the optic nerve head in 27 of 29 monkey eyes. The change in vascular permeability was documented by fluorescein angiography (18 of 21 eyes), by Evans blue fluorescence microscopy (21 of 23 eyes), or by both methods. Leakage occurred from major blood vessels as well as from microvasculature of the nerve head. In 22 eyes, rapid axonal transport was studied after intravitreal injection of tritiated leucine. In 18 of these 22 eyes, autoradiography demonstrated a local interruption of axonal transport. In 15 eyes examined by all three methods, leakage from microvasculature (as opposed to leakage from the major vessels) was loosely associated with severe and widespread blockade of axonal transport at the lamina cribrosa. Although cause-and-effect relationships are not proved, ischemia may be responsible both for the focal endothelial damage with breakdown of the normal blood-brain barrier and for the local abnormalities of axonal transport.