Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Protective roles of ketamine and xylazine against light-induced retinal degeneration in rats

Xuefeng Li, Tao Li, Li Yang, Long-Yun Li

Department of Anesthesiology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin130033, China;

For correspondence:- Long-Yun Li Email: BarrygPerezhv@yahoo.com Tel:+8643184997222

Accepted: 18 March 2019 Published: 30 April 2019

Citation: Li X, Li T, Yang L, Li L. Protective roles of ketamine and xylazine against light-induced retinal degeneration in rats. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(4):727-733 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i4.7

© 2019 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To study the protective effects of ketamine and xylazine against light exposure-induced retinal degeneration (RD) in rats.

Methods: Sprague Dawley rats were divided into three groups viz: light damage before anesthesia (LAE), light damage only (LDO), and control (CON) group which was kept in the dark for 12 - 18 h to habituate before light exposure. LDO group was exposed to light before anesthesia, while LAE group was maintained under anesthesia with ketamine and xylazine. The groups were kept for 120 min in darkness after anesthesia prior to light exposure and they were awakened prior to light damage. Functional assessment was carried out using electroretinography while morphological analysis was carried out using histology and immunochemistry techniques.

Results: Ketamine-xylazine combination preserved the function of the retina and protected against light-induced RD based on retinal imaging studies and immunochemistry analysis. Xylazine and ketamine anesthesia provided protection against light-induced retinal damage, and thus reduced photoreceptor cell death.

Conclusion: These results indicate that xylazine and ketamine anesthesia offer protection against light-induced damage and photoreceptor cell death in rats, and therefore, can potentially be developed for use in humans.

Keywords: Retinal degeneration, Light damage, Protection, Xylazine, Ketamine