Functional and morphological abnormalities in the retina of albino rats fed with a low protein diet after weaning.

Previously, we have reported a morphological study of the retina in albino rats fed with a low protein diet. The aim of this study is to verify our previous data and to obtain further informations about morphological and functional damages of the retina following low protein diet in albino rats. For this purpose the retinas of a group of weanling albino rats fed with a hypoproteic diet were studied with Light Microscopy (LM), Electron Microscopy (EM) and Electroretinography (ERG). Our results pointed out a correlation between the anatomic and functional ocular damages and proteinic malnutrition. LM showed a vacuolar degeneration of the optic fiber layer; the EM confirmed these results showing an optic fiber cytoskeleton modification together with glial proliferation. The functional damage as well seems to be correlated to the nutritional imbalance: the scotopic ERG in the experimental group shows a significant decrease (p less than 0.001) of the b-wave amplitude.