Effect of cigarette smoke on rabbit corneal cells in vitro.

Cigarette smoke strongly affects rabbit corneal cells in vitro. The cells from hypercholesteremic rabbits are damaged more severely by cigarette smoke than the cells from normocholesteremic rabbits. In vitro, the effect increases with increasing concentration of cigarette smoke. This is reflected by the decrease in the number of positive cultures, by the delay of the initial outgrowth of cells, by the depression of growth value, by the distor tion of growth curves, by the morphologic alterations, and by the depression of enzymatic activities of corneal epithelial cells. Quantitative reaction of rabbit corneal cells to cigarette smoke is similar to that of rabbit's aortic cells. The qualitative response of corneal epithelial cells to cigarette smoke was far less pronounced than that of aortic endothelial cells.