Animal Model of RPE-Choriocapillaris Interactions: Sodium Iodate Retinopathy in the Rabbit

Abstract

When rabbits receive intravenous injections of sodium iodate the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is destroyed over large expanses of the fundus (Noell,1953). We have shown that the choriocapillaris (CC) adjacent to the necrotic RPE atrophies, while that adjacent to spared RPE (consistently located at the far periphery and around the optic disc) remains normal in appearance (Korte et al.,1984). This observation and a consideration of published reports on retinal histopathology led us to suggest that CC depends on the RPE for its survival, and that RPE influences some of its functionally important structural specializations, such as numbers of endothelial fenestrae (Henkind and Gartner,1983; Korte et al.,1984). Our initial observations were made, however, at widely separated times after administration of sodium iodate; primarily 1 and 11 weeks after injection. Continued examination of material obtained from 1 day to 6 weeks after sodium iodate not only buttressed our notion that CC atrophy and RPE destruction are linked, but suggested that RPE regeneration and CC regeneration occur in tandem. These observations are presented here.KeywordsRetinal Pigment EpitheliumOptic DiscScar TissueLarge ExpansePigment RabbitThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.