Abstract
Aquaporin 1 (AQP1) and aquaporin 4 (AQP4) have been identified in the eye as playing an essential role in the formation of the aqueous humor along with the Na+/K+ ATPase pump. Different authors have described the relationship between blood pressure, aqueous humor production, and intraocular pressure with different conclusions, with some authors supporting a positive correlation between blood pressure and intraocular pressure while others disagree. The aim of this work was to study the effect of high blood pressure on the proteins involved in the production of aqueous humor in the ciliary body (CB) and iris. For this purpose, we used the eyes of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and their control Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY). Immunofluorescence was performed in different eye structures to analyze the effects of hypertension in the expression of AQP1, AQP4, and the Na+/K+ ATPase α1 and α2 subunits. The results showed an increase in AQP1 and Na+/K+ ATPase α1 and a decrease in AQP4 and Na+/K+ ATPase α2 in the CB of SHR, while an increase in AQP4 and no significant differences in AQP1 were found in the iris. Therefore, systemic hypertension produced changes in the proteins implicated in the movement of water in the CB and iris that could influence the production rate of aqueous humor, which would be affected depending on the duration of systemic hypertension.
Highlights
The connection of systemic hypertension with changes in intraocular pressure (IOP) have not been clarified to date
The aquaporin 4 (AQP4) was found in the basal membrane of the ciliary body (CB) non-pigmented epithelium (NPE) while Aquaporin 1 (AQP1) was expressed in the endothelium basal pole of the CB blood vessels
The results reported here suggest that systemic hypertension induces changes in protein expression related to the formation of aqueous humor
Summary
The connection of systemic hypertension with changes in intraocular pressure (IOP) have not been clarified to date. High blood pressure (BP) could contribute to increase IOP due to different causes such as overproduction or damage to the outflow of the aqueous humor [1,2]. Many population-based studies have found a strong positive correlation between BP and IOP [3,4,5,6,7,8,9], but not with age. There is a strong positive association between systolic arterial pressure (SAP) and IOP, and a weaker association between diastolic arterial pressure (DAP) and IOP [10]. It has been reported that eight-month old SHR rats showed a lower IOP
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