The effects of methylprednisolone acetate on macromolecular synthesis and glucose oxidation in epithelial cells of the ocular surface.

Epithelial cells that re-epithelialized corneas after the normal corneal epithelium was removed limbus to limbus by scraping were found to be metabolically responsive to methylprednisolone acetate. Seventy-two hours after scraping, the re-epithelializing cells from steroid-treated animals were found to have a 26% slower rate of DNA synthesis, a 30% slower rate of glucose oxidation via glycolysis, and a 79% greater rate of RNA synthesis with no apparent change in gross protein synthesis as compared with vehicle-treated controls. The DNA content of the epithelial layer isolated from steroid-treated corneas was reduced by 31% as compared with that of vehicle-treated controls.