A Model to Measure Lymphatic Drainage from the Eye

Intraocular pressure (IOP) is the most important risk factor for glaucoma development and progression. Most anti-glaucoma treatments aim to lower IOP by enhancing aqueous humor drainage from the eye. Aqueous humor drainage occurs via well-characterized trabecular meshwork (TM) and uveoscleral (UVS) pathways, and the recently described ciliary lymphatics. The relative contribution of the lymphatic pathway to aqueous drainage is not known. We developed a sheep model to quantitatively assess lymphatic drainage along with TM and UVS outflows. Following intracameral injection of 125I-bovine serum albumin (BSA), lymph and blood samples were continuously collected. Lymphatic and TM drainage were quantitatively assessed by measuring 125I-BSA recovery. This quantitative sheep model enables assessment of relative contributions of lymphatic drainage (1.64% ± 0.89%), TM (68.86% ± 9.27%) and UVS outflows (19.87% ± 5.59%), and may help to better understand the effects of glaucoma agents on outflow pathways.MAS