Effect of amino acid, purine, and pyrimidine analogues on activation of corneal stromal cells to take up neutral red.

I investigations carried out in this laboratory have been concerned with the initial responses of the corneal stromal cells to injury. One reaction which occurs in the stromal cells within a few hours after injury to the cornea is the activation of the fibrocytes to take up the vital dye, neutral red.' This reaction does not occur in the normal corneal stromal cells of the rat, but cells activated by injury concentrate the dye approximately 150 to 500 fold.' It has been possible, with the measurement of the uptake of neutral red as a quantitative tool, to obtain clues to some of the reactions leading to the activation of the stromal cells.