Morphological changes in retinal neurons in streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus and their correction with an isobornylphenol derivative.

Along with microangiopathy, one of the main causes of blindness in diabetic retinopathy consists of degeneration of retinal neurons. Electron microscopy and morphometric analysis were used to study structural changes in neurosensory cells, associative, and ganglion neurons in the retina in 30 while mongrel male rats with streptozotocin diabetes for two months and the effects of a new semisynthetic antioxidant 4-methyl-2,6-diisobornylphenol, a screened phenol, were evaluated. Destructive changes were found to affect the outer segments of neurosensory cells and ganglion neurons. The number density of neurosensory and ganglion cells decreased, and the proportion of these cells with pyknotic nuclei increased. 4-Methyl-2,6-diisobornylphenol had neuroprotective actions, preventing destructive changes to neurosensory cells and ganglion neurons.