|
pubmed:abstractText |
Bacterial endotoxin is a potent inflammatory stimulator, the local and systemic responses thereby elicited being mediated via the release of cytokines from diverse cell types. Under physiological conditions, the corneal endothelium is protected from these toxins by the epithelial and vascular barriers, but in organ culture these safeguards are no longer operative, and such substances will therefore have ready access to this cell layer. The consequences of such exposure may take the form of overt damage to the endothelium and/or a more discreet influence on the cornea's immunological status, the effects of which may be realised only after transplantation, by its poor performance. The media bathing organ cultured donor corneas were monitored for the presence of various cytokine mediators of the inflammatory response before and after incubation with endotoxin, and these data compared with those pertaining to endothelial cell morphology and numerical density.
|
