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1From the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the 3Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center, University Of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; and the 2Department of Anatomy, University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
| Abstract |
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METHODS. Intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured by Goldmann applanation tonometry in monkeys under ketamine anesthesia. After anterior chamber cannulation under pentobarbital anesthesia, aqueous humor formation (AHF), anterior chamber volume, trabecular outflow, and Fu were determined isotopically. The CM and TM were examined by light and electron microscopy.
RESULTS. IOP increased significantly with age in monkeys aged 3 to 29 years. AHF and anterior chamber volume were unchanged. Fu was decreased, and trabecular outflow increased in monkeys aged 25 to 29 years compared with the remaining monkeys. Morphologically, there was a significant increase in the thickness of the elastic fibers of the trabeculum ciliare covering the anterior tips of the CM, and an increase in extracellular material between the muscle tips. The number of TM cells decreased with age, whereas the amount of fibrillar material and sheath-derived plaques increased. This increase was less pronounced in the middle filtering portion of the cribriform region than in the anterior and posterior portions.
CONCLUSIONS. The decline in Fu in very old rhesus monkeys with normal IOP parallels that seen in normotensive aging humans. This may be correlated with thickening of the elastic fiber sheath in the CM tips in addition to other morphologic changes. The TM findings are analogous to those in the aging human eye and are consistent with the age-related decrease in outflow facility reported in both humans and monkeys.
Similarly, IOP in normal, healthy, free-ranging rhesus monkeys remains relatively constant with age, after an initial juvenile hypertensive phase.11 12 13 Outflow facility, as well as its response to intracameral pilocarpine, declines with age.14 Morphologic changes in the ciliary muscle (CM) in aging rhesus monkeys, including increases in the number of pigmented cells between the CM bundles with the anterior longitudinal region being affected last, suggests that uveoscleral outflow (Fu) may also be affected.15 16
In the present study we determined in rhesus monkeys the correlation with age of Fu, rate of aqueous humor formation (AHF), rate of trabecular outflow, and anterior segment volume. We also examined the possible role of previously unstudied age-related morphologic changes in the anterior portion of the CM and the trabecular meshwork (TM) that could alter uveoscleral and trabecular outflow.
| Methods |
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873 years) were anesthetized with intramuscular injection of ketamine followed by intravenous administration of pentobarbital (1015 mg/kg; maintenance dose of 510 mg/kg as needed, usually every 1 to 1.5 hours). A femoral artery was then cannulated for subsequent blood sampling. Eight additional animals were used for determinations of blood-equivalent albumin space (described later). Quantitative morphologic studies were conducted on CM and TM from 12 other rhesus monkeys, aged 3.5 to 34 years, killed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and subsequently sent to the University of Erlangen. Different structural parameters from monkeys in the current study have been reported earlier15 (Table 1) .
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After cannulation of the eyes and a 5- to 10-minute equilibration period at spontaneous IOP, the mixing pump was started. Radioactivity in the well detector loop was measured for 1 minute with a multichannel analyzer (series 30; Canberra) every 5 minutes for the next 120 minutes. Blood samples of 1 mL were taken from the femoral artery every 10 minutes beginning at 40 minutes and the radioactivity measured with a gamma counter (Packard Instrument Co., Meriden, CT).
Anterior chamber volume was calculated from the initial decrease in circuit isotope concentration. AHF was determined from the slope of the disappearance of radioactivity from the circuit. Flow into the bloodstream (flow to blood) was calculated from the radioactivity recovered in the blood samples (corrected for the decreasing concentration in the anterior chamber) and the blood-equivalent albumin space. Fu was calculated as the difference between AHF and flow to blood.
Blood-equivalent albumin space was determined on a separate occasion in six of these same animals, in five additional animals aged 4 to 22 years, and in three of these same animals plus three additional animals aged 24 to 30 years, by constantly infusing I-125 monkey albumin into the saphenous vein and sampling blood from a femoral artery at 10- or 15-minute intervals for 2 hours. The resultant regression equation for the 4- to 22-year age group was applied to flow to blood calculations for animals 3 to 23 years of age, and the equation from the 24- to 30-year group was applied to flow to blood calculations for animals 25 to 29 years of age, unless the monkeys own data were available (n = 9), in which case those data were used.
Analysis
AHF, Fu, and flow to blood data were analyzed with the two-tailed, unpaired t-test for differences with unequal variances compared with 0.0. Probabilities for slopes were calculated by regression analysis using Minitab software (Minitab, Inc., State College, PA).
All experiments were in accordance with the ARVO Statement for the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research and the University of Wisconsin institutional animal care and use committee.
The fixed specimens were cut into 1- to 2-mm wedges encompassing cornea, TM, and iris and ciliary body posterior to the ora serrata and embedded in Epon. Semithin sections (1 µm) and ultrathin sections (60 nm) were cut with an ultramicrotome (Reichert, Vienna, Austria). Semithin sections were stained with toluidine blue, and ultrathin sections were counterstained with lead citrate and uranyl acetate. Semi- and ultrathin sections of the TM and CM tips were investigated in four different sectors of the circumference of the eye.
Quantitative evaluation was performed in semithin sagittal sections of the four different portions of the circumference. The number of trabecular cells (defined as cells with nucleus in the section) were counted in the entire meshwork in that section. In ultrathin sections of the chamber angle, the area occupied by sheath-derived plaques (the sheaths of the elastic fibers) and fibrillar material under the inner wall of Schlemms canal was measured. Measurements were performed with a computer-based morphometric system (Quantimed 500; Leica, Cambridge, UK) at x3000 on a video screen. The area of the cribriform region analyzed was 315 µm2 and was located in the middle filtering part of the meshwork, avoiding both the anterior and posterior ends of Schlemms canal. The length of the area was 45 µm along the inner wall of the canal and extended 7 µm from the inner wall into the cribriform region. In addition, the diameter of cross sections through elastic fibers was measured.
In sagittal ultrathin sections through the CM tips of the longitudinal and reticular part of the muscle the diameter of 10 elastic fibers per section in the trabeculum ciliare was measured. As the morphology of the elastic fibers was in general similar in the different quadrants, quantitative evaluations were performed only in one randomly chosen section per eye.
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Morphology
In rhesus monkeys the trabeculum ciliare connecting the uveal portion of the TM with the iris root and thereby covering the CM tips consisted of a network of collagen and elastic fibers. On the aspect facing the anterior chamber, this network was covered by TM cells. On the aspect facing the CM bundles, the elastic and collagen fibers of the trabeculum ciliare were continuous with the connective tissue between the CM bundles and the basement membrane of the CM cells. With increasing age, the fibrillar material within the trabeculum ciliare and the intermuscular spaces at the muscle tips increased. The elastic fibers gained a homogeneous-appearing electron-light sheath that also increased with age. Quantitative evaluation of the diameter of the elastic fibers including the sheath material revealed that the increase in thickness was linear (Figs. 6 7A) .
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| Discussion |
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Previous studies showed an age-related decrease in total outflow facility in both monkeys14 and humans.2 6 9 In humans, reduced formation of giant vacuoles in the inner wall endothelium of Schlemms canal has been proposed to account for the age-related increase in outflow resistance (Roy S, Boldea R, Leuba S, Mermoud A, ARVO Abstract 733, 2001) but this is only one of many possibilities. The amount and induction of mRNA for various matrix metalloproteinases decreased with age of porcine trabecular cell cultures exposed to 15 and 50 mm Hg of pressure for 72 hours (Ehrich D, Tripathi BJ, Tripathi RC, Duncker GIW, Gotsis S, ARVO Abstract 748, 2001). In human TM cells, there may also be a passage-numberrelated reduction in matrix metalloproteinase activity (Williams GC, Borrás T, Pizzo SV, ARVO Abstract 764, 2001). Findings in both of the latter studies suggest a reduced capacity to break down extracellular material, which could contribute to a reduction of outflow either through the TM or through the Fu pathway. Also, a reduction in CM movement23 reflected by the onset of presbyopia in humans and monkeys which is complete by approximately 55 years in humans and 25 years in rhesus monkeys,24 could contribute to an environment in which extracellular material could accumulate in the CM and TM outflow pathways.25
In our study and inferred from Toris et al.,8 the flow of fluid through the trabecular outflow pathway actually appears to increase with age when the starting IOP is normal. Trabecular outflow facility was not measured as part of the present study. An increase in trabecular flow would not by itself rule out a decrease in trabecular outflow facility.
However, if trabecular outflow facility (Ctrab) and Fu decrease while AHF remains stable, IOP must increase or episcleral venous pressure (Pe) must decline, based on the Goldmann equation: AHF = Ctrab (IOP - Pe) + Fu. Because IOP appears to increase with age in the monkeys we studied (Fig. 1) , whereas AHF remained unchanged and Fu decreased, a decrease in trabecular outflow facility with age is possible. Our morphologic and physiological data suggest that the age-related increases in IOP in this sample of monkeys may reflect changes in the uveoscleral as well as the trabecular outflow pathway (discussed later). However the physiologic changes in aqueous humor drainage in our studies appear not to occur uniformly throughout life but change rather precipitously at 25 years of age. Morphologic changes seem to occur more uniformly with age. It may be that a threshold in morphologic changes must occur before there are any changes in physiologic response.
The increased appearance of isotope in the blood in older animals can be explained in two ways: Either almost all the fluid goes through the TM, or Fu channels empty into the blood more promptly. In the first case, the normal elevation in IOP with age may produce a widening of the paracellular channels between the inner-wall endothelium26 and a loosening of the cellcell attachments that form them, allowing more fluid to flow through this route in a nondiseased eye. The second possibility suggests that Fu channels become more "leaky" or are otherwise altered with age. However the change in Fu was not continuous throughout life, but rather occurred precipitously in very old age. If the vasculature in general becomes more leaky with age, then the blood-equivalent albumin space in monkeys aged more than 25 years would be expected to be greater than in those aged less than 19 years, which was not the case. In adult humans, leakiness remained largely unchanged from 18 to 77 years.27 Scleral hydraulic conductivity does not appear to change with age in humans (Noury AM, Jackson TL, Hodgetts A, Marshall J, ARVO Abstract 3580, 2001). If we assume the same blood-equivalent albumin space in all animals, then the difference in Fu in the two age groups is even more striking (Gabelt BT, Kaufman PL, ARVO Abstract 2749, 2000).
There has been a debate about whether Fu actually passes through the sclera versus flowing into the choroidal blood.28 However, these arguments in no way negate the use of protein tracers as a marker. Any protein appearing in the blood shortly after its introduction into the anterior chamber can be assumed to have been carried to the blood by transtrabecular flow. Therefore the calculation of Fu as the difference of AHF and flow to blood would not depend on the exact route of Fu.
Prior studies of the aging CM have revealed some cellular changes that seem unlikely to have consequences for bulk fluid flow through the tissue, which is more likely to depend on events in the intermuscular spaces and perhaps especially at the anterior entrance to those spaces at the trabeculum ciliare. The trabeculum ciliare is a network of elastic and collagen fibers between the iris root, the uveal portion of the TM, and the CM tips. It is covered by cells anteriorly and connected to the basement membrane of the CM cells and the connective tissue between the CM bundles at their tips posteriorly. Aqueous humor must pass through the spaces of the trabeculum ciliare to gain entrance to the spaces between the CM tips, which constitute the entrance to the Fu pathway.
In the present study, there was a significant increase in thickness of the elastic fibers of the trabeculum ciliare with age in rhesus monkeys. Cross sections through the elastic fibers and their sheaths form the so called sheath-derived plaques.29 Sheath-derived plaques at the muscle tips increase with age in human eyes and especially so in glaucomatous eyes.29 The plaques at the muscle tips in old rhesus monkeys presumably are not large enough to reduce Fu themselves but may indicate a general increase in extracellular material in the CM tips and a consequent reduction in the size of the "gateway" openings for entrance of aqueous humor into the Fu pathways.
The number of pigmented cells in the inner and posterior parts of the CM in rhesus monkeys increases with age,15 but the most anterior portions are spared until after age 20 years, at which point the spaces between the muscle fiber bundles contain a greatly increased number of pigmented cells compared with younger animals. This is especially prominent after age 25 years when pigmented cells are present even between the tips of the anterior longitudinal portion of the muscle. The correlation with the dramatic decrease of Fu over age 25 is noteworthy but could be either a contributing factor to or the result of decreased Fu.
With increasing age in rhesus monkeys, we found an increase in sheath-derived plaques and fibrillar material in the juxtacanalicular region and a decrease in overall cellularity of the TM. All these findings also occur in human eyes with increasing age. After filtration surgery in young normal monkeys increased plaque formation also occurred in the TM, presumably consequent to underperfusion.30 If underperfusion causes plaque formation in our old monkeys, this could explain why changes in the TM show more interindividual variability (between animals of the same age) than do the CM entrance changes. Because AHF does not decline noticeably with age, the flow may wash out and degrade sheath material in the TM. This would be less true in the muscle tips with severely reduced Fu.
In conclusion, our results in monkeys and those of Toris et al.8 in humans, using independent techniques with different assumptions and potential flaws, both indicate that Fu decreases at older ages in eyes with normal IOP and normal findings in biomicroscopy. This decrease in Fu with age could be especially important in elderly patients with glaucoma, in whom outflow facility through the TM is also compromised.31
| Acknowledgements |
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| Footnotes |
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Supported by National Eye Institute Grant EY02698 (PLK); an unrestricted departmental grant from Research to Prevent Blindness and physician-scientist awards (PLK); Grant RR00167 from the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center; and Grant SFB319 from the Academie of Science, Mainz, Germany (EL-D).
Submitted for publication June 11, 2002; revised November 12, 2002; accepted November 17, 2002.
Disclosure: B.T. Gabelt, None; J. Gottanka, None; E. Lütjen-Drecoll, None; P.L. Kaufman, None
The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C.
1734 solely to indicate this fact.
Corresponding author: Paul L. Kaufman, Department Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, F4/328 CSC, 600 Highland Avenue; Madison, WI 53792-3220; kaufmanp{at}mhub.ophth.wisc.edu.
| References |
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increases uveoscleral outflow in the cynomolgus monkey Exp Eye Res 49,389-402[CrossRef][Medline][Order article via Infotrieve]
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