Human ciliary body in organ culture.

Ciliary body explants from 30 human eyes were maintained in organ culture up to 14 days. The age of the donors ranged from 45 to 85 years, the post mortem time from 4 to 22 hours. The ciliary epithelium as well as the underlying stroma were studied light- and electronmicroscopically before incubation and after 1, 3, 5, 7 and 14 days of culture. At the same time intervals, the localization of Na/K-ATPase and carbonic anhydrase (CA) were examined histochemically. If the cells were already damaged before incubation in medium (9 cases), they did not recover in culture. Best results were obtained after 3 to 5 days of culture with a survival rate of more than 90% after 3 days and more than 70% after 5 days, respectively. Both the nonpigmented (NPE) and the pigmented epithelium (PE) of the pars plicata in culture retained the morphological characteristics of epithelia involved in active secretion, namely elaborate infoldings of the cell membranes, numerous mitochondria in the cytoplasm and high activity of Na/K-ATPase and CA. In addition the adjacent capillaries were still fenestrated. After longer incubation times (7-14 days) the NPE and PE cells were filled with increasing amounts of lipid droplets and glycogen granules, indicating changes in metabolism.