Abstract

The aim of our investigation was to evaluate morphological changes in the rabbits ciliary body cells following intravenous injection of a cytostatic mixture. Our study was performed on 32 rabbits with a body weight ranging between 3.0-3.5 kg, that were randomly divided into an experimental group of 24 rabbits and a control group of 8 rabbits. The animals from the experimental group were injected with a mixture of 100 mg 5-fluorouracyl, 5 mg methotrexate and 0.2 mg vincristin into the aural marginal vein. The control group did not receive any drugs. After two, three and seven days following the administration of this mixture the animals were killed under general anesthesia, and the eyeballs were removed and tested using light and electron microscopes. The samples were prepared according to conventional methods and semithin samples of the ciliary body epithelium were contrasted in LKB Ultrasteiner equipment and evaluated with an electron transmission microscope 10 CR Opton-Zeiss. These experiments demonstrated damage of the membrane structure of the ciliary body epithelium cells on the second and third days of observation, mainly smooth endoplasmatical reticulum, mitochondria swelling, and formation of vacuoles and myeline structures. The observed changes were transient and reversible.

Keywords: cytostatics, Ciliary Body, pathomorphology, ultrastructure