Protein Studies on the Human Vitreous Body

Abstract

INVESTIGATIONS of the vitreous body are beset with numerous technical difficulties. Its large water content and the instability of its structure make it difficult to obtain unchanged vitreous body in large amounts. Through the slit lamp and in fixed histological preparations (Lauber, 1936; Baurmann, 1926; Comberg, 1924; Duke-Elder, 1930), the human vitreous body appears as a structured mass. In order to circumvent the criticism that such structures are caused artific-ially, new methods of investigation had to be evolved. Through the ordinary microscope fresh vitreous body demonstrates no structural elements. On the other hand, investigations with the ultramicroscope (Friedenwald and Stiehler, 1935), darkfield microscope, and phase-contrast microscope (Red-slob, 1932; Matoltsy and others, 1951; Grignolo, 1952) have not led to any single conclusion, but have given rise to the present view of the vitreous body as a gel, permeated by a net of submicroscopic fibrils. As Morner (1893) has shown, this structural part can be split off by fil-