In response to injury, synapse alteration may occur earlier than the changes in the cell body of neurons. Although retinal ganglion cell death and thinning of the inner part of retina were found after acute high intraocular pressure (HIOP), the structural and functional changes of synapses in the retina remain unknown. In the present study, we investigated the protein and mRNA expression of synaptophysin (SYN), an important molecule closely related to synaptic activities, synaptogenesis and synaptic plasticity. In addition, we also studied the ultrastructural changes of the retinal synapses. We found that (1) synaptophysin was upregulated transiently at both protein and mRNA level following HIOP; (2) broadened distribution of synaptophysin protein was present within the outer nuclear layer at the early stage following HIOP; (3) in the outer nuclear layer bouton-like vesicle-containing structures were observed by electron microscopy. This data suggested that, besides degeneration, synapses in rat retina may undergo regenerative events following HIOP.
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