Thermal cycling effects on the stored rabbit cornea

Specular microscopy has proven itself a useful tool for evaluation of donor corneas. In many eye banks, corneas are stored at 4°C and warmed to room temperature for specular microscopic evaluation. On occasion it would be desirable to put the cornea back into storage provided there were no detrimental effects of the recooling and subsequent rewarming. The effects of repeated cooling and rewarming (thermal cycling) on the corneal endothelium were determined using rabbit corneas stored in M-K medium at 4°C. Some corneas were left in the refrigerator for a 7-day storage interval while others were removed daily, warmed to room temperature, evaluated morphologically and biochemically with the specular microscope and the redox fluorometer, respectively, and then placed back in the refrigerator. At the end of the 7-day storage period there were no statistically significant differences in either the biochemical signals or the specular appearance between thermally cycled corneas and corneas that were continuously stored at 4°C for the same period of time. Repeated warming, specular microscopic observation, and cooling of the cornea appear not to be detrimental to the corneal endothelium.