Abstract
These experiments were undertaken on anurans and fishes to compare the results with those obtained from a series of studies on the grafted eyes of urodeles. 1 2 3 4 5 In one group the functional eye in Fundulus heteroclitus, 4 to 6 cm in length, was grafted in the orbit (32 reimplants and 20 transplants). For several days, or in some cases for weeks, the operated eye appeared perfectly normal. Circulation in most cases returned in 2 or 3 days and ocular movement was present in 10 days. The lens in some cases was slightly opaque as early as the tenth day. It usually broke down rapidly and in the living eye during the first or second month it appeared as a white gelatinous mass protruding through the pupil.
At the end of a month the pupil and the eye became slightly smaller. The iris began to show pigment changes and during the second month most eyes were slowly resorbed. Throughout the experiment the cornea never became opaque.
The animals were sacrified 1 to 95 days after operation. Histological sections showed that the central region of the retina degenerated rapidly, beginning on the second day. The rod and cone cells in this area were slightly more resistant than other layers. The ciliary region, so resistant in urodeles (opus cited), was still a complete ring of cells on the third and fourth weeks when the rest of the retina was a mass of debris. In one unusual case (2 reim-planted eyes on the same host) both eyes on the ninety-fifth day appeared much like the normal. The lenses were clear and undegen-erated and the retinae had not undergone extensive degeneration.
Eighty-two eyes were reimplanted in the orbit in Rana pipiens larvae 18 mm in length.
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