Endothelial cell lined lymphatics in the vascularized rabbit cornea.

The possibility that the lymph vessels may proliferate and invade corneal tissue in association with a similar invasion of the blood vessels following the intraocular injection of alloxan monohydrate has already been presented. On that occasion the response of both the lymph and. blood vessels to external corneal damage was ignored. Moreover, no definitive proof teas presented to show that the observed corneal canals were lined by endothelium. In this paper it is shoton that canal formations other than corneal blood vessels occur as part of the reaction to external corneal tissue destruction caused by cauterization and silver nitrate application. The irregular caliber and frequent anastomoses of these canals show a similarity to the capillaries of the lymphatic system. Injection of a dilute solution of silver nitrate into the corneal canal system shows that a wall consisting of a single layer of endothelial cells is present. This cellular lining is continuous with that of the conjunctival lymphatic vessels, the cell borders of ivhich show the sinuous and irregularly dentate pattern tohich is characteristic of the cells of lymphatic endothelium. Many of the cells lining the corneal lymphatic vessels show the same irregular shape and tortuous cell margins.