Mitochondria-Targeted Antioxidant SkQ1 Prevents Anesthesia-Induced Dry Eye Syndrome

Figure 1

Clinical state and morphology of the cornea during general anesthesia. (a) Incidence of DES in the rabbits exposed to 1–6 h of general anesthesia calculated as a percent of eyes with fluorescein-stained corneal injury regardless of its score. (b) Representative microscopic images of hematoxylin and eosin staining of rabbit corneas from different experimental groups. Control animals: normal cornea (А, Е). Animals after 1 h of general anesthesia: desquamation of superficial epithelial cells is indicated by white arrowhead (B, F). Animals after 3 h of general anesthesia: degeneration of epithelial cells is shown by black arrowheads (G), destruction of epithelial layer is indicated by an arrow (C), and the same locus is shown at higher magnification by an asterisk (H). Animals after 6 h of general anesthesia: prenecrotic (I) and apoptotic (J) changes are indicated by black arrows, desquamated cornea epithelial cells onto partially or fully thickness-denuded area are shown by asterisks (L-M), apoptotic degeneration of some cells is shown by arrows (M), and locus of total denudation is shown by arrowheads at lower (D) and higher (N) magnification (margins of cornea erosion are shown by red arrowheads). Ep: epithelium; Str: stroma; DM: Descemet’s membrane and corneal endothelium. Magnification: ×100 (A–D) and ×1000 (E–N); scale bars: 200 μm (A–D) and 20 μm (E–N).

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