Further evidence for local osmotic coupling in the rabbit cornea

1. The present experiments measure net fluxes of fluid, Cl- and HCO-3 across de-epithelialised rabbit corneas clamped between half chambers and bathed in Ringer solutions. 2. Net fluxes of HCO-3 and fluid occurred together across the cornea from stroma to aqueous when HCO-3 and CO2 were present in the bathing solution. 3. No net trans-corneal C1-flux was found 4. The initiation of fluid flow in the presence of HCO-3 and CO2 cannot be accounted for by bulk-phase osmotic flow across the cornea.