ObjectiveTo observe and analyze the fundus of pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome (PIHS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) characteristics and its correlation with ocular symptoms and degree of the systemic disease. MethodsA total of 132 PIHS patients (264 eyes) received the examinations of corrected visual acuity, slit lamp microscope, direct ophthalmoscope, OCT and fundus color photography after obtaining informed consent in the study. There were 10 cases of gestational hypertension, 29 cases of preeclampsia (mild), 82 cases of pre-eclampsia (severe) and 11 cases of eclampsia. 91 patients (180 eyes) felt blurred vision and visual fatigue. 102 patients were examined at an average gestational age of (37.00±2.14) weeks and 30 patients were examined at an average (10.00±8.22) days postpartum. The ocular fundus was divided into normal fundus and abnormal fundus; the abnormal fundus had 3 stages, including stageⅠ(retinal arterial spasm), stageⅡ(retinal arteriosclerosis) and stageⅢ(retinopathy). If the OCT results seems to be abnormal, these patients were further selected to observe the changes of neurosensory serous retinal detachment, retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and junction of inner and outer segment of photoreceptor (IS/OS). Kappa test was used to analyze the consistency between fundus performance and OCT results, and that of ocular symptoms with fundus changes and OCT results. Rank correlation test was used to analyze the degree of PIHS and OCT examinations. ResultsThere were 32 eyes with normal fundus (12.12%) and 232 eyes with abnormal fundus (87.88%). The 232 eyes with abnormal fundus were divided into three stages: stageⅠfor 16 eyes (6.90%), stageⅡfor 31 eyes (13.36%) and stageⅢfor 185 eyes (79.74%). 92 of 264 eyes (34.85%) had normal OCT findings, 172 eyes (65.15%) were abnormal, including 94 eyes with serous retinal neurosensory detachment (54.65%), 40 eyes with changes of RPE and IS/OS (23.26%) and 38 eyes with other manifestations (22.09%). Kappa test analysis showed highly consistency between OCT results and ocular symptoms (K=0.728, Po=0.591), and poor consistency between fundus abnormalities and ocular symptoms (K=-0.129, Po=0.879), and between fundus abnormalities and OCT results (K=0.174, Po=0.682). OCT results were positively correlated with the degree of PIHS (C=0.374, χ2=74.011; P=0.000). Conclusions87.88% of PIHS eyes had various degrees of retinal hemorrhage, cotton wool spots, retinal bumps or detachment, optic disc edema and other retinal abnormalities. 65.15% of that showed OCT abnormal results such as neurosensory retinal detachment, cystoid edema, RPE changes etc. The consistency was poor between the OCT results and fundus abnormalities. OCT results are positively correlated with the degree of PIHS.
ObjectiveTo observe the influence of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hUCMSC) transplantation into vitreous cavity of diabetic rats on the retinal morphology, and the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and rhodopsin (RHO). Methods78 male Sprague-Dawley rats were used. 70 rats were injected with streptozotocin by tail vein injection at a dose of 40 mg/kg to establish the diabetes mellitus model, and another 8 rats were injected with 0.1 mol/L pH 4.0 citric acid buffer at the same dose as the normal control group. After 6 weeks of modeling, 10 rats were taken as the control group of diabetic model. hUCMSC suspension was injected into the right eye vitreous cavity of the remaining 60 rats, and the same volume of Dulbecco's modified Eagle/F12 medium was injected into the left vitreous cavity as control eyes. 1, 2 and 4 weeks after transplantation, follow-up experiments were performed. The experimental eyes were labeled as U1, U2, and U4 groups, while the control eyes were recorded as D1, D2, D4, and each group consisted of 20 eyes. After paraffin section and hematoxylin-eosin staining, the structure of the retina was observed by optical microscopy and the thickness of the outer nuclear layer and the inner nuclear layer (INL) were measured. The distribution and migration of hUCMSC in rat retina were observed by frozen section-tissue immunofluorescence assay. The mRNA and protein expression of GFAP and RHO in the retina were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Western blot assays. ResultsThe results of optical microscope observation showed the normal structure of retina in normal control group. The retinal nerve fiber layer (NFL) was thinned and the number of retinal ganglion cells (RGC) in the control group of diabetic rats was decreased. The decreased number and disorder arrangement of RGC were observed as well in U1, D1 rats. The RGC number of U2, U4, D2, D4 rats was gradually decreased. Compared with D4 group, the thickness of INL in U4 group was significantly increased (P < 0.05). Tissue immunofluorescence assay showed that hUCMSC were distributed along the inner limiting membrane in the retina of the U1 group, while the number of hUCMSC in the U2 group was gradually decreased, mainly in the NFL and ganglion cell layers. Real-time PCR and Western blot data indicated that the relative expression of GFAP mRNA and protein in the diabetic retina was significantly increased, and the relative expression of RHO mRNA and protein decreased gradually in the diabetic model group and the D1, D2, D4 groups. Compared with D2 and D4 groups, the mRNA and protein expression of GFAP in U2 and U4 groups were decreased, and the relative expression of RHO mRNA and protein were all increased (P < 0.01). ConclusionhUCMSC could migrate and integrate into the retina, after the transplantation into the vitreous cavity of diabetic rats, which reduced the expression of GFAP, but enhanced the expression of RHO.