Receptor-mediated adrenocorticoid hormone signaling in ocular tissues

Sodium-water balance is causally linked to the functional expression of a number of important ocular tissues, viz. corneal deturgescence, aqueous humor secretion by the iris, hydration of the lens, retinal photoreception, and choriocapillary angiogenesis. The regulation of sodium absorption in the eye is generally believed to be under the control of Na(+),K(+)-activated adenosine triphosphatase, although evidence for this view is at best circumstantial. Contemporary work has shown widespread distribution of the mineralocorticoid hormone receptor and its colocalization with the amiloride-sensitive sodium channel in cells of diverse embryological origins. All available evidence favors the idea that the transcriptional regulation of the apical sodium channel by adrenocorticoids, and not the basolateral sodium pump, is critically important to sodium-water homeostasis in various ocular tissues, in a manner previously believed to be limited exclusively to the epithelial cell in various peripheral organs. Based upon these parameters, models are presented to help in understanding the direction of sodium absorption in a number of ocular tissues. Thus, the regulation of the sodium channel by steroid hormones seems to be a universal feature of the living cell that may have important implications in the understanding and management of normal ocular functions and their modification in human pathology.