Structure and Function of Ocular Ciliary Epithelium

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The fine structure of ciliary epithelium was investigated by various techniques of electron microscopy. The iridial portion of ciliary process in rabbit eye was mainly used, where the aqueous humor production is supposed to be most active.1. The epithelium is consisted of pigmented (PE) and nonpigmented (NPE) epithelial layer. The basolateral cell surfaces of both PE and NPE epitheliocyte show elaborate infoldings which interdigitate with those of adjacent epitheliocytes, and their cell membrane contains abundant intramembrane particles in the freeze fractured specimen.2. The intraepithelial nerve fibers were found. They showed beaded appearance and distributed among PE epitheliocytes. They contain 2 kinds of vesicle in their dilated portion. The smaller vesicles (-50 nm in diameter) contain dense granule after treatment with 5' -hydroxydopamine, thus indicated thus indicated their noradrenergic nature.3. The topical application of forskolin induced following morphological changes ; oedemous stroma of ciliary process, and dilation of ciliary channel as well as intercellular space of PE. The findings suggest that the agent caused the reabsorption of the aqueous.4. The intact ciliary epithelial bilayer (PE+NPE) was successfully isolated by perfusion method using collagenase solution. The immunocytochemical localization of Na/K ATPase was investigated on the isolated fresh bilayer specimen. The EM observation revealed that the enzyme localizes on the cell membrane along the basolateral surfaces of both PE and NPE. The findings suggest both cell layers participate in aqueous humor production.5. The physiological and pharmacological experiment is underway using this isolated epithelial sheet and promising results are already obtained.These experiments were collaborated with Prof. M. Sears, Yale University School of Medicine.