The role of the iris in chick accommodation.

PURPOSE Peripheral defocus, higher-order aberrations, and accommodation interact with pupil size to influence retinal image quality and possibly eye growth. Iridectomy (ID) provides a fixed, enlarged pupil. Results from in vitro studies suggest that ID may reduce or eliminate accommodation in the chicken. This paper further investigates the effects of ID on chicken accommodation, eye growth, and refractive development. METHODS Refraction, biometry, and corneal curvature were measured, before, and after topical instillation of nicotine in 43 White-Leghorn chickens that had undergone monocular ID. Intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured, and eyes were imaged with anterior segment optical coherence tomography (OCT) during accommodation. In vitro preparations were used to examine accommodation responses in a lens-scanning instrument. RESULTS Iridectomy induced small but significant decreases in anterior and vitreous chamber depths and an increase in lens thickness (LT). IOP was similar in iridectomized and control eyes from 1 week on. In vivo, nicotine induced similar accommodative changes in iridectomized and control eyes. OCT images revealed a forward displacement of the iris during accommodation in control eyes. Iridectomized and control eyes showed similar increases in LT. In vitro, iridectomized eyes showed minimal nicotine-induced accommodation. CONCLUSIONS Refraction and eye growth were minimally affected by ID in chickens, implying that emmetropization was unaffected and supporting the use of ID as a tool in emmetropization and myopia studies. The greatly attenuated accommodative responses in vitro for iridectomized eyes suggest a role of biomechanical factors in the chick. IOP was unaffected by the surgery, implying that the iris musculature is not essential for maintaining aqueous outflow pathways.