Co-existence of myopia and amblyopia in a guinea pig model with monocular form deprivation

BACKGROUND: Form deprivation myopia is a type of ametropia, with identifiable causes in humans, that has been induced in many animals. The age of onset of myopia induced by monocular form deprivation coincides with the period of visual development in guinea pigs. However, visual acuity of form-deprived eyes in guinea pigs is not understood yet. In this study, we investigated whether monocular form deprivation would affect visual acuity in infant guinea pigs by evaluating the development of myopia and amblyopia after monocular form deprivation, and whether form deprivation myopia and amblyopia occurred simultaneously or successively. METHODS: Twenty pigmented guinea pigs (2 weeks old) were randomly assigned to two groups: monocularly form-deprived (n=10), in which facemasks modified from latex balloons covered the right eye, and normal controls (n=10). Refraction, axial length, and visual acuity were measured at 4 intervals (after 0, 1, 4, and 8 weeks of form deprivation), using cycloplegic streak retinoscopy, A-scan ultrasonography (with an oscillation frequency of 10 MHz), and sweep visual evoked potentials (sweep VEPs), respectively. Sweep VEPs were performed with correction of the induced myopic refractive error. RESULTS: Longer deprivation periods resulted in significant refractive errors in form-deprived eyes compared with those in contralateral and normal control eyes; the axial lengths of form-deprived eyes increased significantly after 4 and 8 weeks of form deprivation. These results revealed that myopia was established at 4 weeks. The acuity of form-deprived eyes was unchanged compared to that at the pretreatment time point, while that of contralateral eyes and eyes in normal control guinea pigs improved; there were significant differences between the deprived eyes and the other two open eyes from 1 to 8 weeks of form deprivation, showing that amblyopia was possibly established during 1 week of form deprivation. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated the feasibility of using sweep VEPs to estimate the visual acuity of guinea pigs. Further, our results revealed that amblyopia likely occurred earlier than myopia; amblyopia and myopia coexisted after a long duration of monocular form deprivation in guinea pigs. Understanding this relationship may help provide insights into failures of treatment of amblyopia associated with myopic anisometropia.