Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Szeged, Dóm tér 10., H-6720 Szeged, Hungary.
Department of Image Processing and Computer Graphics, Institute of Informatics, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged, Árpád tér 2., H-6720 Szeged, Hungary.
Auton Neurosci. 2018 Sep;213:34-42. doi: 10.1016/j.autneu.2018.05.007. Epub 2018 May 18.
Patients with schizophrenia show impairments in autonomic regulation, including pupillomotor control. The aim of this study was to explore the changes of pupillary light reflex in a new substrain (WISKET) with several schizophrenia-like alterations. Male WISKET rats housed individually (for four weeks) and treated with ketamine (for 3 × 5 days) after weaning and naive group-housed Wistar rats (controls) were involved in the study. The pupillary light reflex was studied in two series after sedation (diazepam) or anesthesia (chloral hydrate). Video recordings were evaluated with custom made video analyzer software. Several significant changes were observed between the two groups: the initial and minimum pupil diameters were greater, the degree of the constriction was lower, and the flatness of the curve and the total duration of constriction were shorter in the sedated WISKET rats. No other pupillary parameters (latency, amplitude and redilation) showed significant alterations. Chloral hydrate anesthesia prolonged the constriction and redilation processes compared to the sedated animals, and diminished the differences between the groups. In conclusion, WISKET rats showed disturbances in the pupillary light reflex, suggesting a general shift of autonomic balance towards a sympathetic predominance. The results provide further evidence to support the validity of WISKET rats as a complex, chronic animal model of schizophrenia.
精神分裂症患者表现出自主神经调节受损，包括瞳孔运动控制受损。本研究旨在探索一种具有多种精神分裂样改变的新亚系（WISKET）的瞳孔光反射变化。雄性 WISKET 大鼠在断奶后单独饲养（四周）并在成年后用氯胺酮（三次，五天）处理，而新生的 Wistar 大鼠（对照组）则被用于研究。在镇静（地西泮）或麻醉（水合氯醛）后进行两个系列的瞳孔光反射研究。使用定制的视频分析软件评估视频记录。两个组之间观察到几个显著的变化：在镇静的 WISKET 大鼠中，初始和最小瞳孔直径更大，收缩程度更低，曲线的平坦度和收缩总持续时间更短。其他瞳孔参数（潜伏期、振幅和再扩张）没有明显变化。与镇静动物相比，水合氯醛麻醉延长了收缩和再扩张过程，并减小了两组之间的差异。总之，WISKET 大鼠的瞳孔光反射出现紊乱，表明自主平衡向交感优势的一般转变。这些结果进一步证明了 WISKET 大鼠作为一种复杂的、慢性的精神分裂症动物模型的有效性。
