Measurement of postmortem outflow facility using iPerfusion.
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Published version
Author(s)
Madekurozwa, Michael
Reina-Torres, Ester
Overby, Darryl R
van Batenburg-Sherwood, Joseph
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The key risk factor for glaucoma is elevation of intraocular pressure (IOP) and alleviating it is the only effective therapeutic approach to inhibit further vision loss. IOP is regulated by the flow of aqueous humour across resistive tissues, and a reduction in outflow facility, is responsible for the IOP elevation in glaucoma. Measurement of outflow facility is therefore important when investigating the pathophysiology of glaucoma and testing candidate treatments for lowering IOP. Due to similar anatomy and response to pharmacological treatments, mouse eyes are a common model of human aqueous humour dynamics. The ex vivo preparation, in which an enucleated mouse eye is mounted in a temperature controlled bath and cannulated, has been well characterised and is widely used. The postmortem in situ model, in which the eyes are perfused within the cadaver, has received relatively little attention. In this study, we investigate the postmortem in situ model using the iPerfusion system, with a particular focus on i) the presence or absence of pressure-independent flow, ii) the effect of evaporation on measured flow rates and iii) the magnitude and pressure dependence of outflow facility and how these properties are affected by postmortem changes. Measurements immediately after cannulation and following multi-pressure facility measurement demonstrated negligible pressure-independent flow in postmortem eyes, in contrast to assumptions made in previous studies. Using a humidity chamber, we investigated whether the humidity of the surrounding air would influence measured flow rates. We found that at room levels of humidity, evaporation of saline droplets on the eye resulted in artefactual flow rates with a magnitude comparable to outflow, which were eliminated by a high relative humidity (>85%) environment. Average postmortem outflow facility was ∼4 nl/min/mmHg, similar to values observed ex vivo, irrespective of whether a postmortem delay was introduced prior to cannulation. The intra-animal variability of measured outflow facility values was also reduced relative to previous ex vivo data. The pressure-dependence of outflow facility was reduced in the postmortem relative to ex vivo model, and practically eliminated when eyes were cannulated >40 min after euthanisation. Overall, our results indicate that the moderately increased technical complexity associated with postmortem perfusion provides reduced variability and reduced pressure-dependence in outflow facility, when experimental conditions are properly controlled.
Date Issued
2022-05-05
Date Acceptance
2022-04-28
Citation
Experimental Eye Research, 2022, 220, pp.109103-109103
ISSN
0014-4835
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
109103
End Page
109103
Journal / Book Title
Experimental Eye Research
Volume
220
Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
License URL
Sponsor
National Institutes of Health
Royal Academy Of Engineering
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35525299
PII: S0014-4835(22)00183-X
Grant Number
203-1774
BMPF_P67271
Subjects
Mouse models
Outflow facility
Perfusion
Postmortem effects
Publication Status
Published online
Coverage Spatial
England