Abstract:Obiective To investigate the significance of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) in the lateral geniculate corpus in the pathogenesis of amblyopia. Method Thirty healthy 3-week-old domestic cats that had excluded turbidity of the refractive medium and abnormal fundus were randomly divided into normal control group (15 rats) and monocular deprivation group (15 rats), and were housed in a well-lit environment. After the kittens in monocular deprivation group was anesthetized, the right eye was covered with a black eyepatch, and the regular pattern visual evoked potential (PVEP) detection was performed. The use of PVEP to detect whether the amblyopia model was successfully established was at 6 weeks of age in kittens. The right lateral geniculate bodies of the control group and the deprivation group were excised according to the Sinder stereotactic map of the cat brain, and VIP immunohistochemistry and VIP mRNA in situ hybridization were performed respectively. The average optical density values of positive cells and the number of positive cells were counted using data analysis software. Result At 6 weeks of age in kittens, the P100 wave latency of the right eye of monocular deprivation group was longer than that of the right eye of the control group (P < 0.05), while the amplitude decreased (P < 0.05). The number of positive cells and the average optical density of positive cells obtained by VIP immunohistochemistry and VIP mRNA in situ hybridization were decreased in monocular deprivation group (P < 0.05). Conclusion Visual deprivation amblyopia leads to a decrease in the expression of VIP in the lateral geniculate body, and the reduction of VIP affects the normal functional expression of neurons in the lateral geniculate body, which proves that VIP plays an important role in visual development.