Ultrastructure of M-K and refrigerated moist chamber-stored corneas.

McCarey and Kaufman have developed a technique for storing donor corneas by immersing the cornea with its scleral rim in a specific M-K bathing media. By histologic comparison, the M-K media-stored rabbit corneas are superior to the refrigerated moist chamber-stored rabbit corneas. They maintained normal cytoplasmic density but vacuoles and mitochondria swelling were present. In the moist chamber corneas, there was a decrease in cytoplasmic density along with destruction of organelles in these areas. The cell changes in M-K media were slow in progressing during the 14 days, which is in contrast to the faster developing changes in the moist chamber-stored corneas.