ABSTRACT The aerobic response of epithelial metabolism to cellular injury or disease was studied with a three‐layer model of the cornea. Nonclassical (Michaelis‐Menten) respiratory kinetics were assumed, and predicted fluxes validated by reference to known estimates. The model indicates that epithelial oxygen flux is linearly related to epithelial oxygen consumption, and is therefore a direct index of epithelial aerobic metabolism. Injury leading to de‐epithelialization decreases total anterior corneal oxygen flux. The decreases reported experimentally with a polarographic oxygen sensor on the denuded stroma in vivo are greater than theoretically predicted. This effect is due to a limited capture depth of the technique, which “sees” only the anterior stroma.
L. Stephen Kwok (Sun,) studied this question.
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