Ocular chrysiasis: accumulation of gold in the rabbit eye

Gold entered the eye and was accumulated in the aqueous humor, iris-ciliary body, and cornea (measured by flameless atomic absorption spectroscopy) of rabbits given gold sodium thiomalate by subcutaneous infusion for 4 weeks. It was not detected following such exposure in the vitreous humor, lens or retina. The concentration of gold in the cornea was quite high, about 25% of that in the liver. The concentration in the aqueous humor was only about 2.5% of that in the plasma, which is similar to the fraction of gold (5%) that is not bound to plasma proteins.