Studies on the Corneal Endothelium of the Rabbit

Introduction The problem of proliferation and growth of the corneal endothelium has been reexamined recently by determining the mitotic activity in whole flat mounts of this cell layer.1It was observed that cell division regularly occurs in the endothelium of growing rabbits in the peripheral zone of the cornea almost exclusively. The mitotic index decreases with age and approaches zero in the full-grown animal. An evaluation of the proliferative capacity of this cell layer is complicated by the existence of pronounced diurnal variations in the rate of cell division. The development of high-resolution autoradiography and the use of tritiated thymidine to label cell nuclei undergoing DNA duplication have led to a better understanding of mitotic cycles of the cell in many animal tissues. Mills and Donn2and Bito and Harding3applied this technique effectively to the study of cell regeneration following injury of the rabbit corneal endothelium.