TETRAZOLIUM STUDIES ON THE RETINA: IV. DISTRIBUTION OF REDUCTASE IN OCULAR TISSUE

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Abstract
The sites of tetrazolium reductase activity in the eye were studied by incubating the various tissues in a medium of blue tetrazolium and selected substrates. The tissues were then fixed, sectioned, and examined without further staining. Two patterns of tetrazolium precipitation were produced according to the substrates used. One pattern was that typically induced by lac-tate-diphosphopyridine nucleotide and the other by succinate. Lactate-diphosphopyridine nucleotide induced precipitation in the conjunctival epithelium, the superficial layers of the corneal epithelium, the iris epithelium, iris blood vessels and iris muscles, the ciliary epithelia, the lens epithelium, the choroid and choroidal epithelium, lens epithelium, optic nerve sheath, the extraocular muscles and, as previously described, in the glial and ganglion cells of the retina. Succinate, on the other hand, induced significant tetrazolium precipitation only in the conjunctival epithelium, the iris sphincter, and in the ellipsoids of the rods and cones. The activity with succinate appeared to parallel the distribution and quantity of mitochondria. The patterns of reductase activity in the extraocular muscles differed in that it appeared to be predominantly outside the myofibrils when lactate diphosphopyridine nucleotide was used and in the myofibrils when succinate was used.

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