Polyamines in rabbit aqueous humor after surgical trauma to the eye

The polyamines putrescine, spermidine and spermine are necessary for cellular growth and directly involved in cellular differentiation and cell death. The hypothesis that extracellular polyamine levels in rabbit aqueous humor could be used as biomarkers for trauma after eye surgery was investigated. Changes in polyamine levels in rabbit aqueous humor were measured after anterior chamber lens implantation and compared to normals. The measurements were made by reversed phase HPLC and 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate and fluorescence detection. An increase in protein concentration followed by a white blood cell mobilization in the aqueous humor is a response to trauma to the eye. Therefore, the polyamine levels were compared to the aqueous levels of protein and leukocytes. Three days postoperatively a significant increase in spermidine was observed and a significant correlation between elevated protein levels and elevated spermine as well as total polyamines were noticed. No correlation between a high number of leukocytes and high polyamine levels were found. The results suggest that polyamines are evident markers for surgical trauma response, but not necessarily correlated to the postoperative inflammatory phase and the infiltration of inflammatory cells.