Abstract
Measurements were made of the osmotic pressure of plasma, and of aqueous humor taken from the anterior chamber of the right and left eyes and from the posterior chamber of unanesthetized rabbits. Aqueous humor from the anterior chamber was found to be hypertonic to the plasma by approximately 3 mM/liter equivalent of sodium chloride. The aqueous humor from the anterior and posterior chambers of the right and left eyes was isotonic. The concentration of chloride in the anterior and posterior chambers was the same. The concentration of all the major components of the aqueous humor and plasma has been determined by chemical analysis on fluid samples obtained from unanesthetized rabbits at approximately the same time. The calculated osmotic pressure of the total of these substances in terms of sodium chloride equivalent agrees to within better than 1 per cent of the total osmotic pressure as measured experimentally. The distribution of some individual anions and cations of the aqueous humor and plasma was determined. This distribution is widely different from that which would obtain at a state of equilibrium. The positive and negative charges carried by the ions in the aqueous humor were approximately equal. Sources of error in the experiments are discussed.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (772.4 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Benham G. H., Duke-Elder W. S., Hodgson T. H. The osmotic pressure of the aqueous humour in the normal and glaucomatous eye. J Physiol. 1938 Apr 14;92(3):355–360. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1938.sp003607. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- KINSEY V. E. Aqueous-humor/plasma-chloride ratios in rabbits, dogs, and human beings. J Gen Physiol. 1949 Jan;32(3):329–338. doi: 10.1085/jgp.32.3.329. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- KINSEY V. E. Dehydroascorbic acid; ascorbic acid in the aqueous humor of rabbits. Am J Ophthalmol. 1950 Feb;33(2):257–268. doi: 10.1016/0002-9394(50)90846-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- KINSEY V. E. Modification of the apparatus used for the Baldes thermoelectric method of measuring osmotic pressure. Rev Sci Instrum. 1950 Aug;21(8):767–768. doi: 10.1063/1.1745707. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]