Intraocular irrigating solutions and permeability of the blood-aqueous barrier.

The effects of intraocular irrigating solutions on the blood-aqueous barrier were studied using rabbits injected with fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled rabbit albumin. Two days after the injection, the anterior chamber was perfused for 121 minutes with one of the following solutions: normal saline, a commercially available citrate-acetate bicarbonate solution, or a glucose glutathione bicarbonate solution; the amount of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled rabbit albumin collected in the outflowing perfusate standardized to its plasma concentration was adopted as a blood-aqueous barrier permeability index. Of the three solutions, normal saline showed the highest permeability index and glucose glutathione bicarbonate solution showed the lowest. The effects of oxidized glutathione on the blood-aqueous barrier were also studied, using solutions containing various concentrations of oxidized glutathione. The permeability index for the solution containing 0.3 mmol/L of oxidized glutathione was significantly smaller than that for the solution without oxidized glutathione, suggesting that oxidized glutathione has a beneficial effect on the integrity of the blood-aqueous barrier.