It has been well known that the failure of the trabeculectomy is associated with the migration and proliferation of the fibroblast at the fistula site, which may be influenced by the aqueous humor.It is not clear whether the aqueous humor nas growth factor or inhibitory factor. This experiment was designed to elucidate the effect of the aqueous humor on the conjunctiva in rabbit.
The aqueous humor was injected into the subconjunctival areain the rabbit, twice weekly upto for 1 month. In addition, the autologous conjunctival tissue was implanted into the anterior chamber of the fellow eye, which was observed for three months.
The conjuntiva, which was treated by the aqueous humor in situ and in anterior chamber, was examined with electron microscopy. The conjunctiva, treated with autologous aqueous humor, showed the infiltration of the inflammatory cells and fibrin in the substantia propria. These findings may be affected by the disruption of the blood-aqueous barrier or chemoattractant activity of the aqueous humor.
The conjunctiva, implanted into the anterior chamber, disappeared with fragmen-tation or was shrinked in appearance. The conjunctival epithelial cells showed the degeneration with widened intercellular space, slightly protruded villous projection into intercellular space and separation of desmosome between adjacent cells. The substantia propria was well preserved with both the endothelial and pericyte cell uninterruptedly lined with basement membrane. The widened intercellular space and slightly projected villous projection may be influenced by the growth activity in the aqueous humor. However, the inhibitory activity in the aqueous humor may contributeto the degeneration in the superficial epithelium and no further growth of the conjuntival tissue.
These findings may be summed up by the growth activity of the plasmoid aqueous by disruption of blood-aqueous barrier following surgical manipulation and by inhibitory activity in stabilized aqueous humor. The influence of aqueous homor on the cytologic or histologic pattern will depend on the biochemical components of the aqueous humor.
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