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Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rats have hereditary retinal degeneration with associated posterior subcapsular opacities. A link between light, retinal degeneration, and cataracts may consist in peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids of rod outer segment lipids to yield water-soluble toxic aldehydes that can traverse the vitreous and react with bow cells and posterior lens fibers. In an immune reaction to the retinal degeneration, macrophages multiply in the retina and in the cortex of the vitreous. In dystrophics, the cortical vitreous separates readily from attachments to retina, ciliary body and lens, and from the vitreous gel. This web-like structure was stained and spread on a counting chamber. Cells were counted at 15-130 postnatal days in pink- and black-eyed RCS dystrophics and in congenic controls to correlate numbers of cells, temporal and geographic patterns of retinal degeneration, and onset of opacities. Rats were reared in cyclic light (10-40 lux inside the cage) and fed a natural ingredient diet (NIH-07). Cortical vitreous cells increased markedly in pink- and black-eyed dystrophics at 50-53 days when slit-lamp detectable opacities occurred in both. The increase was 4.6-fold in pink- and 2.3-fold in black-eyed rats compared with controls. At 50-53 days, the dystrophy affected all quadrants of the retina severely in pink-eyed RCS but only the inferior periphery in black-eyed RCS. Consequently, severe degeneration in one quadrant may suffice to initiate an opacity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Royal College of Surgeons rats have hereditary retinal degeneration and associated posterior subcapsular opacities (PSO) of the lens, detectable by slitlamp at 7-8 postnatal weeks in both pink- and black-eyed rats. The retinal degeneration is intensified by light, especially in pink-eyed rats. A fourth of pink-eyed rats developed mature cataracts by 9-12 months of age, but black-eyed rats whose retinas are protected from light by pigmented irises and pigment epithelium rarely have mature cataracts (3% or less), indicating light may be a factor in cataractogenesis. Prior work had shown that dark rearing reduced the rate of retinal degeneration in pink- but not black-eyed rats, but cataracts were not studied. In the present work, pregnant pink-eyed females were placed in a darkroom 1 week before parturition. Pups were removed over intervals at 20-85 postnatal days for: (a) microscopic study of fresh lenses and of fixed, stained retina and lens, and (b) counts of cells mm-2 of the web-like vitreous cortex after it had been dissected free. The macrophage-like cells are a quantitative index of immune reaction to retinal damage. At 50-53 postnatal days, in pink-eyed cyclic light reared RCS, the mean number of macrophages was 4.6-fold that in congenic controls, but in those that were dark reared it was only 1.4-fold. This was less than the increase in cyclic light reared black-eyed RCS (2.3-fold that in congenic black-eyed controls). Total absence of light reduced retinal degeneration and the number of macrophages, and prevented PSO detectable microscopically.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Posterior subcapsular cataracts (PSC) are associated with hereditary retinal dystrophy in the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rat model and with human retinitis pigmentosa. The relationship of lens and retinal pathology has never been explained. Previous studies of pink-eyed RCS rats aged 2.5 to 11 months had shown an incidence of cataract of 24% when observed by the unaided eye and 60% by direct ophthalmoscopy, while 40% of rats were considered to have clear lenses. Unlike the retinal degeneration, which appeared in all homozygous animals, cataract seemed not to be predictably associated with the rdy mutation. To test this further, we studied the lenses of rats of different ages with a diagnostic slitlamp. We confirmed that by 8 to 15 months of age, rats fed a diet containing recommended concentrations of all known nutrients for rodents developed cataracts with an incidence of 23% when observed by unaided eye. In addition, opacities were seen in 74% with the indirect ophthalmoscope and 20 D lens; but 100% had at least a "sugar grain" type PSC by slitlamp. The slitlamp-detectable cataract was first seen in some animals by 49 days, and by 56 days all rats examined had bilateral PSC. This is an age at which the rod photoreceptors have degenerated. We concluded that slitlamp-detectable PSC are predictably associated with the retinal dystrophy of the rdy mutation. The RCS rat model may be relevant to a type of retinal degeneration having a constant association of cataract.

Both control and dystrophic pink-eyed RCS rats reproduced poorly when they were fed a standard laboratory rodent diet and were housed in conventional animal rooms unshielded from pathogenic influences. More prolific reproduction and improved growth of young were obtained with a commercial unsterilized closed formula pelleted rodent ration, supplemented with 25% sunflower seed kernels. The sunflower kernels contained a high concentration of vitamin E and 47% fat which was mostly unsaturated. Linoleic acid was 75% of the unsaturated fatty acids. The kernels also contained a higher concentration of selenium (0.8 mg/kg) than standard rodent diets. Effective absorption of the high vitamin E of the diet was shown by analyses of blood plasma of 50-day-old dystrophic and control rats, in which the alpha-tocopherol level was three-fold that in animals fed standard laboratory rodent diet. Dams fed the diet had calmer temperaments and improved lactation. Litters of 8-13 pups were produced, and the pups grew rapidly to weaning with 95% survival of the control strains and 75% survival of the dystrophic strain. Progeny fed the diet for 8-10 months after weaning did not manifest cataracts, which occurred in 23% of the pink-eyed dystrophic animals fed standard rodent diets.

The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rat has been extensively studied as a model system for inherited retinal degeneration. As in a number of human retinal degenerative diseases, posterior subcapsular cataracts (PSC) are associated with the retinal changes. It has been hypothesized recently that such cataracts may be initiated by toxic products generated by the peroxidation of polyunsaturated lipid components from degenerating photoreceptor outer segments. In the present study, the possibility that such a mechanism might be responsible for cataract initiation in the RCS rat has been investigated. The degeneration of the rod outer segments (ROS) occurs rapidly in these animals, beginning a few weeks after birth. Due to the failure of the retinal pigmented epithelium to phagocytize normally, ROS degeneration is accompanied by an accumulation of debris in the eye. During the brief period of maximal debris accumulation there is a marked increase in lipid peroxidation products in the vitreous. Cataract formation is correlated temporally with these events, becoming evident immediately following the time during which peroxidation products are present in the vitreous. In addition, the primary damage detected in the RCS lenses is an increase in the passive permeability of the lens membranes. Similar lens damage has been found in studies in which normal rat lenses were exposed to degenerating ROS in vitro. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that cataracts in the RCS rat may be initiated by toxic lipid peroxidation products.

Various types of hereditary retinal degeneration have associated posterior subcapsular cataract (PSC). It has been claimed that in the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rat model of hereditary retinal dystrophy, the cataract is manifested unpredictably and does not display Mendelian inheritance. It ws shown previously, however, that 100% of pink-eyed retinal dystrophic RCS rats had an onset of bilateral PSC at 7 to 8 weeks of postnatal age, and by 9 to 11 months, 23% of the animals had cataracts visible to the unaided eye. The congenic black-eyed retinal dystrophic RCS rat, however, is a better model for the generally more pigmented human eye. In the present work, it was found that 100% of black-eyed RCS rats had bilateral slit-lamp-detectable PSC beginning at 8 weeks of postnatal age, just as the pink-eyed rats did, despite the fact that dark-eye pigmentation is associated with a 10- to 35-day delay in the rate of degeneration in retinal areas other than the peripheral part of the inferior hemisphere. A higher incidence of mature cataracts in pink-eyed rats (23%) as compared with black-eyed rats (3%) suggests that the amount or intensity of light reaching the lens, retina, and pigmented epithelium may influence maturation of the cataract. However, if light is important in initiating the PSC, its influence was not decreased by dark pigmentation of the eye. RCS rats may be a model for an early onset type of human autosomal recessive retinal degeneration having a constant association of PSC.

Experiments were conducted to evaluate the role played by photoreceptor cells in the accumulation of age pigment, or lipofuscin, in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). The age-related accumulation of RPE lipofuscin was compared between rats with hereditary photoreceptor degeneration (RDY) and congenic rats with normal retinas. In the RDY animals, the age-related increase in RPE lipofuscin content was substantially less than in normal controls. This suggests that the photoreceptor cells play a significant role in RPE lipofuscin deposition, although they may not be the sole contributors to RPE lipofuscin formation. Evidence that outer-segment components may be converted into lipofuscin fluorophores was provided by the discovery that in young RDY rats, fragments of outer segments from degenerating photoreceptor cells had fluorescence properties similar to those of RPE lipofuscin. Chloroform-methanol extraction of retina-RPE tissue from young normal and dystrophic rats, and analysis of the chloroform fractions by thin-layer chromatography, revealed three distinct fluorescent components associated with the lipofuscin-like fluorescence of the outer-segment fragments in the RDY rats.

Rats immunized with the retinal interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) develop an inflammatory eye disease, "experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis" (EAU). The ocular changes which characterize the EAU induced by IRBP resemble those seen in rats which develop EAU by immunization with another retinal protein, S-antigen (S-Ag). Yet, the two antigens do not cross-react antigenically and the two diseases differ by several features: At low doses (less than or equal to 4 micrograms/rat), IRBP was more uveitogenic in Lewis rats than was S-Ag, inducing disease more reproducibly and with earlier onset time. On the other hand, at higher doses (greater than or equal to 20 micrograms/rat) the disease induced by S-Ag was more severe than that induced by the same doses of IRBP. Rats of various inbred strains differed in their susceptibility to EAU induced by these two antigens. In particular, BN rats were more susceptible to IRBP-induced EAU than to the S-Ag-induced disease, while WF and RCS-rdy+ rats developed severe EAU when immunized with S-Ag but showed minimal or no ocular change when immunized with IRBP.

The American Institute of Nutrition purified ingredient diet (AIN-76) prevented occurrence of mature cataracts associated with hereditary retinal degeneration in pink-eyed, tan-hooded Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rats. Rats fed a natural ingredient open formula NIH diet or a closed formula commercial diet had a cataract incidence of 27-29% by 3 to 12 months of age. In contrast, only 1 of 50 rats fed the AIN diet developed a mature cataract in one year. When the NIH diet and the commercial diet were pelleted with 25% of ground sunflower kernels, rats fed these diets had a delay in onset and a reduced incidence of mature cataracts to 18% and 5%, respectively. No mature cataracts occurred in rats fed the AIN diet supplemented with 25% sunflower kernels. All diets were fed to the parental generation as well as the progeny (experimental group). The rats were reared at a low level of illumination (1-3 footcandles inside the cage) to minimize effects of light. Prevention of mature cataracts by the AIN purified diet suggests that diets permitting cataracts to occur may have a constituent at a concentration innocuous for normal rats but beyond the homeostatic control of the RCS rat. Posterior subcapsular cataracts of RCS rats are a model for cataracts associated with human hereditary retinal degenerations, such as retinitis pigmentosa and gyrate atrophy. Manipulation of dietary ingredients allowed by the use of the AIN diet may permit identification of nutrients, nutrient interactions of toxic factors involved in cataractogenesis and its prevention.