The morphological features of bovine meshwork cells in vitro and their synthetic activities

The morphological characteristics of 3rd-passage cultured bovine meshwork cells were investigated, as were some of their synthetic activities. Growing meshwork cells had the ultrastructural characteristics of metabolically active cells whereas postconfluent cells formed gap junctions at their lateral borders and were closer in their fine structure to meshwork cells in vivo. The incorporation of 3H proline and 3H glucosamine was significantly greater in growing than postconfluent cultures. The normal bovine outflow system was rich in type I collagen but type V collagen and fibronectin was also evident. The 3rd-passage cells were shown to synthesize type I collagen, type V collagen and fibronectin. However, ultrastructural studies of the extracellular matrix which was produced in vitro demonstrated the presence of small fibrils with no distinctive banding pattern, unlike the larger collagen fibrils with a 640 A banding pattern seen in vivo.