Active transport of ascorbic acid into lens epithelium of the rat

The transport rates of radiolabeled ascorbic acid (AA) and dehydroascorbic acid, as well as 3-O-methyl-D-glucose and L-glucose from blood into aqueous humor, lens epithelium and lens 'cortex' compartments were studied in male Sprague-Dawley rats. In vivo pulse chase kinetic studies and modeling of transport from plasma and aqueous and on into idealized water compartments of lens epithelium and cortex allowed for the calculation of transport rate constants, Ki (min-1), in experiments utilizing L-glucose as a passive internal control. TLC chromatography was used to monitor intraocular labeled molecules deriving from labeled test molecules introduced via blood. Results indicate that AA enters aqueous humor at rates similar to L-glucose and likely via simple passive diffusion. In contrast, an active uptake of AA by lens epithelium was found with the calculated entry constant for ascorbate being more than 21 times faster than that of L-glucose. Concentrations in lens epithelium were found to be more than twice that of aqueous humor within only 7 min from the introduction of a [14C]AA bolus into blood. It was also found that very little AA continued on past the epithelium to the interior lens cortex compartment. Our data suggest no special uptake of AA by lens fiber cells. The non-metabolizable analog of D-glucose, 3-O-methyl-D-glucose, however, readily moves past the lens epithelium into fiber cells at much faster rates than the passive L-glucose marker and in a manner consistent with facilitated diffusion. The data suggest that even in a nocturnal species, such as a rat, which demonstrates relatively low circulating levels of ascorbic acid in plasma and aqueous humor, special mechanisms exist for moving ascorbic acid into intraocular tissues. More specifically, the lens epithelium actively takes up ascorbate for some, as yet unclear purpose while the interior fiber cells appear to have no special uptake mechanism for this molecule.