AVALIAÇÃO MORFOLÓGICA DE CÓRNEAS DE COELHOS CRIOPRESERVADAS COM ETILENOGLICOL

Rabbit corneas, cryopreserved with ethylene glycol, were evaluated. Corneas of the right and left ocular globes were collected from eleven New Zelanda male rabbits, weighing between 4.0kg and 5.0kg, immediately after the animals were slaughtered. The corneas were removed with a 2.0mm edge of sclera and washed in physiological solution 0.9%. The right corneas were fixed in formaldeide, enclosed in paraffin, stained in hematoxyline eosine for evaluation in light microscopy. The left corneas were immersed in cryoprotect bottlescontaining phosphate-buffered saline solution, 0.4% of bovine albumen and 1.5 molar of ethylene glycol. The bottles were frozen for 60 days at -196º C in liquid nitrogen. After thawing, they were submitted to macrocospic analysis, and measured from digital images. The rabbits´ corneas preservated with ethylene glycol in liquid nitrogen caused no structural nor morphometry alterations at the layers that compose the cornea