Experimental morphological study on structure and function of the filtration angel of the rat eye.

The chamber angle of the eye of pigmented laboratory rats was studied in normal structure and experimentally with the electron microscope. Their exists a circular, flattened canal which corresponds in its topographical position and in its ultrastructural construction to the canal of Schlemm in humans and primates. A trabecular meshwork, comparable to the trabeculum cribriforme in primate eyes, lies directly below the inner wall of Schlemm's canal. The endothelial cells of the trabeculae show phagocytotic activity. The trabecular meshwork is, however, far less intensive in the rat eye than in that of man and it extends up to the spaces of Fontana. Beside a few differences there exist great similarities in structure and function of the chamber angle of the rat eye compared to the corresponding area of eye of man and primates.