[State of the organ of vision and behavior of rats after action on the eye of increased doses of UV-irradiation].

Male Wistar rats, weighing on the average 200 g, were used to investigate the clinical picture of photokerato-conjunctivitis and behavioral responses to the open field test after exposing their eyes to UV-radiation with an emission maximum at 302 nm. The development threshold for conjunctivitis was 0.6 kJ/m2 and that for keratitis was 0.8 kJ/m2. The corneal lesions such as perforation and formation of persistent (up to 60 days) changes emerged beginning with the dose 3 kJ/m2 (in 50% of animals). This dose is a minimally acting dose in terms of behavior. At the dose of 10 kJ/m2 the decrease of the horizontal motor activity, which was significant from day 14, became irreversible. Thus when the organ of vision is exposed to UV-radiation, it is important to take into consideration not only structural changes but also potential functional disorders, which are associated with enhancement of inhibitory processes in the CNS.