Karyologic studies on cells from rabbit cornea and other tissues grown in vitro.

Individual layers of the cornea as well as lung tissues of rabbit were cultured separately in vitro. The endothelial and stromal cells of the cornea maintained their distinctive tissue culture morphology in serial subcultures for a period of over 20 months, and in the case of one endothelial line, even in passages after thatuing from storage at -79° C. These cell lines proved to be very suitable material for chromosome study. Normal karyotype of rabbit has been studied, from some of these lines derived from the corneal and. lung tissues. One cell line derived from the corneal endothelium loas stored at -79° C. for over 3 months and subsequently thawed, and subsequent passages after thawing, showed heteroploid. transformation of chromosomes, and subsequent passages, after thawing shoiced heteroploid transformation of chromosomes. The possible application of karyologic studies of corneal cells in ophthalmic research is discussed.