Continued experimental studies of the pathogenesis of ocular wound healing and traction retinal detachment (TRD) in the traumatized eye are proposed. Our focus is the inevitable inflammatory reaction of the eye to trauma and the hypothesis that the migration of circulating blood monocytes into the injured eye, and their transformation into macrophages, is a basic feature of the ocular response. The importance of macrophages in the development of TRD will be tested in several rabbit models involving, variously the injection of macrophages, whole blood, RBC or growth factors into the vitreous of normal eyes and of eyes with a standard wound. Experiments include studies of recruitment of labelled macrophages into the eye, studies in monocyte-depleted animals, quantitative studies of mitogenic and chemotactic factors in the vitreous in vivo and in vitro, and extensive studies on the morphology of the vitreoretinal interface in normal eyes using freeze-fracture, scanning electron microscopy and immunoelectron microscopic procedures. Our results will reveal the extent to which macrophage invasion of the wounded eye determines the development of intraocular cellular proliferation, membrane formation and TRD. It is hoped that the studies will also identify some aspects of the wound healing response that could be a target for therapeutic intervention.
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