Aqueous ascorbate concentration in hereditary buphthalmic rabbits.

Some aqueous humor constituents, including ascorbate, protein, and sodium, potassium, and calcium ions, were analyzed in three groups of adult buphthalmic (bu/bu) rabbits from strain AXBU/J and in control rabbits of the closely related strain AX/J. Aqueous humor ascorbate concentration of the normal strain was 22.5/"2.3mg/100ml. The buphthalmic rabbits that had no meaningful clinical signs of glaucoma at the time of sample collection had lower values (11.7/"1.7mg/100ml). Much lower values were observed in the bu/bu mutant rabbits that showed mild to severe glaucoma: 8.9/"3.8mg/100 ml and 1.9"/0.4mg/100ml, respectively. It was concluded that reduction of aqueous ascorbate is a biochemical change associated with the pathological development of buphthalmia in rabbits of the AXBU/J strain. However, the exact mechanism is still unclear.