Increased compliance of early experimental glaucoma monkey eyes corresponds with increased collagen content and tortuosity in the lamina cribrosa.

In this abstract we aim to evaluate the role of lamina cribrosa (LC) mechanical and collagen microarchitectural properties in glaucoma. We use a non-human primate (NHP) experimental glaucoma (EG) model, where one eye is given EG and the contralateral eye is a control. With in vivo OCT imaging of the optic nerve heads at various intraocular pressure and digital volume correlation, we observe that in three of the four NHP the EG eye was more compliant than the control eye. From postmortem imaging with instant polarized light microscopy, we observed less collagen and greater tortuosity in the EG eyes for three of the four NHP. These were the same three NHP for which the EG eye was more compliant.