Preservation of enucleated porcine eyes for use in a wet laboratory.

Purpose: To design a method to preserve enucleated porcine eyes for use in a wet laboratory.

Setting: Laboratory of Experimental Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands.

Design: Experimental study.

Methods: Porcine eyes were preserved using 15 methods including salt solutions, anterior chamber infusion fluids, tap water, mineral water, air, and topical glycerol on the cornea. The central corneal thickness (CCT) was measured by A-scan ultrasound over 3 days. Differences between increases in CCT were compared using repeated-measures multivariate analyses of variance. Also, lenses from eyes preserved in tap water were extracted and the lens epithelial cell morphology was studied.

Results: There was a significant interaction between the preservation method and CCT over 3 days (P<.001). Post hoc tests showed that the CCT in the sodium chloride (NaCl) 10.0% and tap-water groups increased significantly less than with 4 other preservation methods. However, preservation in NaCl 10.0% resulted in unusable shrunken coriaceous lenses. Addition of glycerol did not decrease the CCT. Lens epithelial cells from eyes preserved in tap water for 48 hours appeared to be intact but lost cell organization.

Conclusions: Of the 15 tested methods to preserve porcine eyes, tap water (mineral content 1.79 mmol/L) resulted in the least corneal swelling. It is not necessary to use more expensive anterior chamber infusion fluids or other salt solutions.

Financial Disclosure: Neither author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.