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Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Use of Rabbit Eyes in Pharmacokinetic Studies of Intraocular Drugs
Published on: July 23, 2016
Water movement in the rabbit eye
H M Cheng1, K K Kwong, S Dixon
1Howe Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114.
Abstract:
The intraocular distribution of topically applied D2O was quantified using deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. D2O appeared in all tissues with the highest concentration in the aqueous humor (1.2 M); however, it rapidly dissipated from the eye. Surface coil NMR spectroscopy on D2O-treated eyes in vivo showed that the flow pattern was best described by a single exponential decay plus a constant. This suggests that the D2O flow consisted of a flow component representing vascular circulation (with a flow rate constant of 0.101 min-1), and a reservoir-like component. Topical D2O in conjunction with the surface-coil NMR technique can be used to examine the movement of water in the anterior segment of the living eye.
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