Increased levels of extracellular l-glutamate have been suggested to play a role in retinal damage in a number of blinding diseases such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. Although glutamate can cause retinal damage in part by hyperstimulating its receptors ("excitotoxicity"), the downstream events that lead to retinal damage are poorly understood. In this study, we injected kainic acid (KA), a glutamate receptor agonist that specifically hyperstimulates non-NMDA-type receptors, into the vitreous humor of CD-1 mice and have investigated the role of plasminogen activators (PAs) [tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA)] in excitotoxicity-induced retinal damage. Injection of KA into the vitreous humor led to an up-regulation in tPA and an induction in uPA activity in the retina and this was associated with activation of zymogen plasminogen to active plasmin. Immunocytochemical analysis indicated that retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), constitutively express tPA and release it into the extracellular space upon KA injection. Immunocytochemical analysis also indicated an increase in uPA in the nerve fiber layer after KA injection that was absent in the control retinas. These events were associated with apoptotic death of cells initially in the ganglion cell layer and subsequently in the inner and outer nuclear layer, associated with loss of RGCs and amacrine cells. These phenomena were inhibited when recombinant plasminogen activator inhibitor (rPAI-1) or tPA-STOP were injected into the vitreous humor with KA, whereas a plasmin inhibitor, alpha-2-antiplasmin, failed to attenuate KA-induced retinal damage. Taken together, these results suggest that inhibition of plasminogen activators might attenuate retinal damage in blinding retinal diseases in which hyperstimulation of glutamate receptors is implicated as a causative factor to retinal damage.