[Histochemical investigations of acid mucopolysaccharides in corneal wound healing following superficial keratectomy (author's transl)].

In rabbit eyes there was made a central superficial defect into the cornea with a 7.2-mm Trepan/0.35 mm depth. To show alterations in the pattern of acid mucopolysaccharides during wound healing histochemical investigation was carried out in a series of toluidine blue preparations of pH 3,8-5,2 of unfixed frozen corneal sections. Table 1 shows the results of metachromasia after superficial keratectomy. On the first postoperative day metachromasia was extremely reduced in the area of keratectomia. Metachromasia in the surrounding cornea became normal after three days while in the area of corneal defect it lasted a long time, until the normal pattern of acid mucopolysaccharides is reconstructed. After three months the metachromasia was still reduced in the superficial parts of the corneal stroma (Fig. 3). After six months cornea was transparent in the area of ketatectomy with no alterations in the pattern of mucopolysaccharides. This showed the long alterations in the pattern of mucopolysaccharides. This showed the long healing procedure in bradytrophic corneal tissue.