Effects of low level laser treatment on the survival of axotomized retinal ganglion cells in adult Hamsters

• Published in: Neural regeneration research 2014-11, Vol.9 (21), p.1863-1869
• Main Authors: So, Kwok-Fai, Leung, Mason Chin Pang, Cui, Qi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Animals; Degeneration; Ganglion; Hamsters; Health aspects; Helium; Lasers; Lasers in medicine; Nervous system; Physiological aspects; Protein synthesis; Research and Report; Retina; Studies; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; 中枢神经系统; 仓鼠; 存活率; 成年; 激光治疗; 神经保护; 视神经; 视网膜神经节细胞
• ISSN: 1673-5374; 1876-7958
• DOI: 10.4103/1673-5374.145337

Injury to axons close to the neuronal bodies in the mammalian central nervous system causes a large proportion of parenting neurons to degenerate. It is known that optic nerve transection close to the eye in rodents leads to a loss of about half of retinal ganglion cells in 1 week and about 90% in 2 weeks. Using low level laser treatment in the present study, we demonstrated that treatment with helium-neon （660 nm） laser with 15 mW power could delay retinal ganglion cell death after optic nerve axotomy in adult hamsters. The effect was most apparent in the ifrst week with a short period of treatment time （5 minutes） in which 65–66% of retinal ganglion cells survived the optic nerve axotomy whereas 45–47% of retinal ganglion cells did so in optic nerve axotomy controls. We also found that single dose and early commencement of laser irradiation were important in protecting retinal ganglion cells following optic nerve axotomy. These ifndings thus convincingly show that appropriate laser treatment may be neuroprotective to retinal gan-glion cells.