[Cytologic studies of the aqueous humor to determine immune reactions].

Although corneal grafting is performed on a so-called privileged (i.e., unvascularized) tissue, it is not always successful. Depending on the degree of vascularization of the host cornea (Stages I-IV) allograft reactions occur in 3 to 70% of patients thus treated. In an animal experiment (rabbits) a graft reaction was produced in the anterior chamber of one eye following presensitization with soluble corneal proteins, after implanting corneal tissue in the anterior chamber under the protection of a viscoelastic substance. The same grafting procedure was repeated on the fellow eye without previous sensitization. In the course of the immunoreaction the cell content of both eyes was studied and, 14 days after grafting, the result of aspiration cytology was compared with findings from light-microscopic examinations of the corneal graft and host cornea. A correlation was established between the results of aqueous humor cytology and the cytological findings in the corneal graft. It follows that immunoreactions can be interpreted reliably by aqueous humor aspiration cytology.