AQUEOUS-HUMOR FROM TRAUMATIZED EYES TRIGGERS CELL-DIVISION IN THE EPITHELIA OF CULTURED LENSES

Experiments were designed to gain a better understanding of the relationship between ocular inflammation and cell proliferation in the lens epithelium. Aqueous humor (AH) was collected from rabbit eyes that had been subjected to a variety of traumata, including paracentesis, needle injury, X-irradiation and the intravitreal administration of an antigen. In all instances the protein content of the AH increased, reflecting a breakdown in the blood-aqueous barrier. Rabbit lenses from non-traumatized eyes were isolated and cultured in medium KEI-4 containing samples of the various aqueous humors noted above. Control lenses were cultured in medium KEI-4 alone or in KEI-4 containing rabbit serum albumin at a protein concentration equivalent to that used in the AH studies. In contrast to controls, the epithelial cells of lenses exposed to AH from injured or inflamed eyes exhibited mitosis throughout the normally amitotic regions of epithelium. Moreover, the specific activity of AH collected 15 min after initial paracentesis, relative to both DNA synthesis and mitosis, excecded that of rabbit serum. An identification of the mitogenic factor(s) in the AH may help in understanding the environmental conditions that regulate the mitotic response which normally precedes wound healing in the lens in situ, and may help in elucidating the mechanism which controls mitosis and differentiation in the lens in vivo. © 1979.