Flat preparations of ocular structures.

We employ a technique which has been used for in vitro studies of the vascular endothelium for obtaining flat preparations of different ocular structures such as corneal endothelium, epithelium of cornea, iris, ciliary body, lens and retinal pigment epithelium. The described method is relatively simple and allows evaluation of the overall state of these cellular sheets. After staining of the preparations with silver nitrate, we found intercellular lines to be present in all specimens studied except in the outer layers of the corneal epithelium. This method could be useful for in vitro studies of different pathological conditions of ocular tissues, both in animal models and in enucleated human eyes.