Posters
Electron microscopy findings of anterior lens capsule in patients with uveitic cataract due to juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA)
Poster Details
First Author: S.Masnec CROATIA
Co Author(s): M. Kalauz R. Kordic T. Kuzman I. Skegro T. Jukic M. Corić S. Seiwerth
Abstract Details
Purpose:
To report the electron microscopy findings on an explanted anterior lens capsules in patients with uveitic cataract due to JRA.
Setting:
1. University Hospital Center Zagreb, Department of
Ophthalmology, Zagreb, Croatia
2. Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Methods:
Prospective study included 13 eyes with uveitic cataract due to JRA and 13 eyes with nuclear cataract who underwent cataract surgery at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb, over a 36 month recruitment period.
Anterior lens capsules were collected during cataract surgery, fixed in 10% buffered formaline, postfixed in OsO4, embedded in Epoxi resin, and prepared for semi-thin sections stained with toluidine blue. Ultrathin sections mounted on coated copper grids were stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate and analysed using electron microscopy. We compared the ultrastructural morphology of anterior lens capsules in nuclear cataracts and in a patients with JRA.
Results:
On ultrathin sections the control capsules were uniformly thin, consisting of a dominant basement membrane and a layer of flattened epithelial cells. In the altered capsules from the patients with JRA the basement membrane was thickened with altered fibrillary structure. The epithelial layer was severely thickened with vascular spaces lined with reactive endothelium, morphologically altered epithelial cells, and occasional bundles of collagen fibrils. Abundant ground substance and lamellar structures were also present.
Conclusions:
Our data indicate that uveitic capsules due to juvenile rheumatoid arthritis showed more extensive and different ultrastructural morphological changes most likely due to chronic eye inflammation.
Financial Disclosure:
NONE
