Fritz Schønheyder

REMARKS ON THE AQUEOUS HUMOR/PLASMA RATIOS FOR AMINO ACIDS AND RELATED COMPOUNDS IN PATIENTS WITH VARIOUS CHRONIC OCULAR DISORDERS

The concentration of 19 amino acids and related compounds was simultaneously determined by means of ion exchange chromatography in the aqueous humour (Caq) and blood plasma (Cpl) of 40 patients with various chronic ocular disorders. The physiological aspects will be published elsewhere. It is of interest to note that very few significant differences have been found between the Caq/Cpl ratios for the groups into which the material could be clinically divided. This enables the conclusion to be drawn that determination of Caq/Cpl for amino acids and related compounds are not of diagnostic importance in the chronic ocular disorders which were studied.

AMINO ACID TRANSPORT IN HUMAN CILIARY EPITHELIUM

A statistical study of the co‐variation of the concentrations of 19 amino acids and related compounds from 21 persons was performed as a factor analysis of Caq,/CPl and of Caq. Six factors explained about 83% of the observed variation. Factor 1 showed a correlation to α‐amino‐N‐butyric acid, valine, methionine, isoleucine, leucine, tyrosine and phenylalanine, factor 2 to lysine, histidine, arginine and glutamine (containing serine), factor 3 to taurine and praline, factor 4 to glycine and cystine, factor 5 to urea and factor 6 to glutamic acid. Only alanine and threonine showed a correlation to different factors in the Caq/Cpl‐ and the Caq‐matrix. This correlation of groups of substances to different and independent factors is considered to be an argument in favour of the existence of six transport systems in the ciliary epithelium for the investigated substances.