The Effects Of Chronic Alcoholism On Visual System Of Rats And The Protection Of Ebselen

Objective: Using the model of voluntary alcohol consumption to study the effects of chronic alcoholism on visual system of rats and discuss the protective effects of ebselen, a synthetic antioxidant, through Y-Maze, electroretinogram and visual evoke potential.Methods: Thirty Sprague Dawley(SD)male rats were randomly divided into three groups: control group ,ethanol group and ethanol+ebselen group(drug group), each group have 10 rats. The control group fed with water and general diet. The ethanol group and the ethanol+ebselen group fed with general diet and water which contained alcohol concentration of 6%,9%,12%(V/V),each concentration lasted for 5 days, then the ethanol concentration changed for 20%(V/V),meanwhile, the diet of ethanol+ebselen group was added ebselen for 50mg/kg/d.All these administrations lasted for 6 weeks. Then the Y-maze test which arms were pasted with cross ,circle and triangle were adopted for each group, and the total time for rat staying in each arm were recorded. After this test, examines of flash electroretinogram and flash visual evoke potential were performed to study implicit time and amplitude of waves.Results: (1)Y-maze: The percent for the rats in ethanol group staying in triangle arm is about 46%, which is much higher than the control and ethanol+ebselen group.(2)F-ERG:Animals consuming ethanol had increased a-and b-wave implicit times in their electroretinograms compared with those of the dietary control group. The animals treated with ethanol+ebselen did not show this increase. The amplitude of waves did not show significantly different between these groups.(3)F-VEP:The ethanol group had increased P1-wave implicit time compared with the control group, nevertheless the difference was not statistically valid between them.P1-wave implicit time of ethanol+ebselen group had decreased compared with the ethanol group and there was no significant difference compared with the control group. The implicit time of N1-wave had increased in ethanol group and the difference was significantly compared with control group, it was shorter in ethanol+ebselen group than the ethanol group and compared with control group, there was no significant difference. The amplitude of N1-P1 wave had decreased in ethanol group and the difference was significantly compared with control group, it was higher in ethanol+ebselen group than the ethanol group and compared with control group, there was no significant difference. For the amplitudes of N1-P2, N2-P2 wave, there had no significantly different from the three groups.Conclusion: Chronic alcoholism lead to structure and function damage in visual system, however the damage can be prevented by antioxidant, which is confirmed that oxidatie stress is one of the important mechanisms in chronic alcoholism. Thus, we can infer that oxidantie stress probablely plays a significant part in damage of chronic alcoholism in central nervous system. This research will offer theoretical basis for exploring solution of damage of chronic alcoholism in central nervous system.