An Autoradiographic Demonstration of the Effect of the Corneal Epithelium on Amino Acid Incorporation into the Insoluble Constituents of the Corneal Stroma

In previous experiments, (1, 2) i t was observed t ha t the incorporat ion of glycine-l-C 14 into protein fractions of the corneal s t roma of the chick eye was greatly reduced in the absence of the corneal epithelium. Par t ia l removal of the epithelium from the surface of the s t roma led to a proport ional reduction in the incorporat ion of the label into the stromal proteins. This finding suggested t ha t the effect of the epithelium was restricted to a limited, closely adjacent area. I t seemed desirable, therefore, to ascertain autoradiographically the extent of the epithelial influence on the uptake of label into the stroma. Such autoradiographs actually do show tha t the area in the s t roma with high label uptake coIcesponds very closely to the area of the epithelial cover.