Schwaner Stephen A, Kight Alison M, Perry Robert N, Pazos Marta, Yang Hongli, Johnson Elaine C, Morrison John C, Burgoyne Claude F, Ross Ethier C
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 315 Ferst Drive, 2306 IBB, Atlanta, GA 30332 e-mail: .
Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology/Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30332 e-mail: .
J Biomech Eng. 2018 Aug 1;140(8):0845011-08450110. doi: 10.1115/1.4039998.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness and involves the death of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Although biomechanics likely contributes to axonal injury within the optic nerve head (ONH), leading to RGC death, the pathways by which this occurs are not well understood. While rat models of glaucoma are well-suited for mechanistic studies, the anatomy of the rat ONH is different from the human, and the resulting differences in biomechanics have not been characterized. The aim of this study is to describe a methodology for building individual-specific finite element (FE) models of rat ONHs. This method was used to build three rat ONH FE models and compute the biomechanical environment within these ONHs. Initial results show that rat ONH strains are larger and more asymmetric than those seen in human ONH modeling studies. This method provides a framework for building additional models of normotensive and glaucomatous rat ONHs. Comparing model strain patterns with patterns of cellular response seen in studies using rat glaucoma models will help us to learn more about the link between biomechanics and glaucomatous cell death, which in turn may drive the development of novel therapies for glaucoma.
青光眼是不可逆性失明的主要原因，涉及视网膜神经节细胞（RGCs）的死亡。尽管生物力学可能导致视神经乳头（ONH）内的轴突损伤，进而导致RGCs死亡，但这种情况发生的途径尚不清楚。虽然青光眼大鼠模型非常适合进行机制研究，但大鼠ONH的解剖结构与人类不同，并且由此产生的生物力学差异尚未得到表征。本研究的目的是描述一种构建大鼠ONH个体特异性有限元（FE）模型的方法。该方法用于构建三个大鼠ONH FE模型，并计算这些ONH内的生物力学环境。初步结果表明，大鼠ONH的应变比人类ONH建模研究中观察到的更大且更不对称。该方法为构建正常血压和青光眼大鼠ONH的其他模型提供了一个框架。将模型应变模式与使用大鼠青光眼模型的研究中观察到的细胞反应模式进行比较，将有助于我们更多地了解生物力学与青光眼细胞死亡之间的联系，这反过来可能推动青光眼新疗法的发展。
