Comparison of wavefront aberrations in rabbit and human eyes.

Background: The rabbit is one of the most common animal models used for preclinical safety evaluation of new cataract surgery and laser vision-correction technologies in ophthalmic research; however, the distributions of wavefront aberrations in rabbit eyes are unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the similarities and differences of wavefront aberrations between rabbit and human eyes.

Methods: Monochromatic wavefront aberrations of left and right eyes of 12 rabbits and 12 human subjects with normal vision were measured by a commercial aberrometer (WaveScan Wavefront System, Abbott Medical Optics Inc, California, USA). Comparison of wavefront aberrations in rabbit and human eyes is based on a 6.0 mm pupil.

Results: The rabbit eyes have an average spherical refraction of 1.51 ± 0.83 D and a cylindrical refraction of -1.03 ± 0.63 D. The average spherical refractive error of the human eyes used in this study was -2.03 ± 2.59 D with a cylindrical refraction of -1.27 ± 1.01 D. The average wavefront error root-mean-square (RMS) from higher-order aberrations is 0.34 μm in rabbits (6.0 mm pupil), which is higher compared to the wavefront error RMS value of human eyes (0.26 μm). The largest higher-order aberration in rabbit eyes is vertical coma (Z7, 0.19 ± 0.16 μm), whereas the largest higher-order aberration in human eyes is spherical aberration (Z12, 0.07 ± 0.13 μm). Wavefront error RMS, vertical coma and some higher-order aberrations are significantly correlated between the right and left rabbit eye.

Conclusion: Compared to wavefront aberrations in the human eye measured in this study, the rabbit eye has less refractive error but larger higher-order aberrations both in wavefront error RMS and some higher-order aberration terms. Similar to human eyes, wavefront error and some higher-order aberrations are significantly correlated between the right and left rabbit eye.