DEVELOPMENT OF SECRETORY FUNCTION OF CILIARY BODY IN THE RABBIT EYE

Abstract

Recent studies on the adult rabbit have indicated that electrolytes enter the anterior chamber of the adult rabbit eye as a result of a secretory process.¹ In order to evaluate one of the various possible etiologic factors responsible for the characteristic ocular maldevelopment in approximately 12 per cent of infants born extremely prematurely,² it seemed important to determine when the intraocular fluid assumes its adult character of a secretion. Since the high concentration of ascorbic acid in the aqueous humor of adult animals is thought to be maintained by secretion,³ one approach to the solution of the problem has been to measure the time at which ascorbic acid reaches the concentration characteristic of the adult intraocular fluid. To obtain these data, ascorbic acid concentrations in the aqueous humor were determined successively at intervals after birth and the results compared with changes in volume of the anterior chamber