INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY In vitro incubation of rabbit cornea

Rabbit cornea, either as a part of the whole eye or as an isolated specimen, was incubated in vitro in a moist chamber maintained at 34° C. The endothelial surface was perfused with various solutions in order to find a medium capable of maintaining in vitro cornea at normal thickness. The KEI medium (a culture medium for in vitro rabbit lens developed by Kinsey and associates) was found to be the best of all solutions tested. This solution allowed the maintenance of normal corneal thickness for over 10 hours. In the cold-stored swollen cornea this solution alloived nearly complete temperature reversal of the thickness. Simplification of this medium proved unsatisfactory. A modification of the amino acid concentrations of the KEI medium is suggested in this report for the incubation of the cornea. When the corneal epithelium was scraped off and the cornea was perfused with the KEI medium, it was able to maintain normal thickness for at least 6 hours; it also accomplished a very satisfactory temperature reversal of the swelling. Removal of calcium from the complete KEI medium caused a marked swelling of the cornea. KEI salt solution (mineral components of KEI medium) without addition of glucose resulted in a marked swelling and incomplete temperature reversal. The addition of certain carbohydrate metabolites, in the absence of glucose, to this KEI salt solution led to a maintenance of normal thickness and to an occurrence of considerable temperature reversal.