Intracameral injection of cross‐linking hydrogel polymer as an animal model of IOP increase

Glaucoma is a multifactorial neurodegenerative disease that leads to the progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and their axons, resulting in visual field damage and retinal and optic nerve head changes. Progression is generally slow but, in some patients, can lead to a ‘catastrophic’ reduction of visual function and, in advanced cases, may lead to blindness. Glaucoma is, in fact, the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Finding a retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss model or experimental glaucoma that accurately mimics human disease has been a challenge for researchers. However, it has been shown that the increased IOP and the optical media clarity produced in this animal model of glaucoma allows for in vivo study with the Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope of the density and structural loss of RGCs, as well as functional loss of RGCs with electroretinography for more than four weeks after the hydrogel injection.