Effects of divalent cations on bovine corneal stromal swelling rates.

Purpose: The corneal stroma swells with edema fluid due to electrostatic repulsion of its negatively charged glycosaminoglycans, and divalent metal cations inhibit edema development. We investigated whether or not nonmetal divalent cations might also inhibit edema development.

Materials And Methods: We investigated the hydration rates of stromas bathed in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) or phosphate-buffered magnesium sulfate, calcium chloride, hexamethonium dihydrochloride, putrescine dihydrochloride, and ethylenediamine hydrochloride solutions at pH 7.