Some metabolic changes during human corneal organ culture.

In order to evaluate the changes in medium composition during closed system corneal organ culture at 30 degrees C, pH, pO2, glucose and lactate was measured 1 to 7, 14 and 28 days after incubation of a total of 49 human corneas. During organ culture pO2 decreased from 17.3 kPa to 8.8 kPa at day 28. The average oxygen consumption was initially 0.16 mumole/h/cm2, but decreased rapidly to an average of 0.04 mumole/h/cm2 during the first weeks of incubation. The glucose concentration fell from 5.1 mM to 0.25 mM after 28 days, and the lactate concentration rose from 2.5 mM to 11 mM. The concentration changes were for both substances highest during the first 14 days of organ culture. The pH fell from 7.36 to 6.64 after 28 days. These findings indicate that the cultured human cornea predominantly metabolizes glucose anaerobically, and that the metabolic activity decreases during incubation. The limiting metabolic factors for prolonging the culture period seem to be development of severe acidosis and glucose depletion in the medium.