Some Aspects of the Immunologic Factors in Corneal Grafts

¹ Department of Ophthalmology Research, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, N. Y.
² Department of Ophthalmology Research, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University New York, N. Y.

The general basic problems of homotransplantation are briefly reviewed; and pertinent aspects of the factors involved are applied to the corneal graft problem. It is pointed, out that one of the most important questions yet to be solved is the isolation and characterization of the antigens involved. The necessity for an in vitro technique to study this problem prompted the preparation of anticornea antisera which were tested against freshly grown tissue culture cells. It is shown that such antisera are cytotoxic for corneal epithelial and endothelial cells, but not for fibroblasts of corneal stroina. These observations are in accord with the results of corneal heterotransplantation. For controls, antiheart sera were prepared, and were also found, to be cytotoxic for corneal epithelial cells. However, the antiheart antibodies did not affect fibroblasts of corneal stroma, spleen, or conjunctiva, but did damage the fibroblast-like cells growing out of adult rabbit heart explants. The corneal antisera tuere examined for their content of antibodies against the soluble components of cornea by the immunoelectrophoretic technique. At least 6 or 7 corneal tissue antigens, unrelated to serum proteins, were detected- Recent important discoveries have been made in bringing about immunologic unresponsiveness, and the possible application of such information to the transplantation problem is discussed.