Cytochrome oxidase activity of postsurgical bullous keratopathy endothelium

Abstract

Proper corneal hydration Is normally maintained by a pump-leak mechanism located on the lateral cell membranes of the endothelium (1,2). When endothellal cells become sufficiently dysfunctional In response to trauma, the cornea becomes irreversibly edematous and opaque. Previous studies in our laboratory have shown that mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase (CO) activity, an enzyme important in respiratory activities, is correlated with endothelial cell functional activity in corneas with Fuchs' endothelial dystrophy. In this study we investigated cytochrome oxidase activity In corneas with postsurgical bullous keratopathy. Corneas wlth aphaklc and pseudophakic bullous keratopathy (ABK, PBK) were incubated in diaminobenzidlne-cytochrome C media. Results showed that the staining pattern of ABK and PBK corneas was uniformly low compared to keratcconus corneas, and In contrast to previous studies on Fuchs' dystrophy corneas which demonstrated a regional staining pattern. This suggests that CO staining patterns correlate with functional activity and may be a useful technique to detect dysfunctiona I cells in various disease categorles.