Anatomy Physiology & Biochemistry International Journal

The Inexplicable Drop in Intraocular Pressure through the Trabecular Meshwork Explained. The Unsuspected Ability of the Eukaryotic Cell to Dissociate the Water Molecule

Author: Arturo Solís Herrera*, María del Carmen Arias Esparza, Paola Eugenia Solís Arias

Published: August 15, 2023

DOI: 10.19080/APBIJ.2023.06.555699

Abstract Content: Loss of vision caused by glaucoma is one of the three main causes worldwide. That is why researchers, clinicians, and patients make strenuous efforts to find an explanation for a disease that seems to resist both medical and surgical treatments. Glaucoma is a disease that was described from the Greeks, they called it the green disease. And despite the thousands of years that have passed, glaucoma is still a scourge of modern society, which means that available treatments aren’t working adequately. The dynamics of the aqueous humor, considered an important basis of the biology of the eye, is shrouded in mysteries. In this work we will refer to one, and that could not be explained to date. Aqueous humor flows through the outflow network at an extremely low flow rate (2.0 µL/min), yet this flow produces a surprisingly large pressure drop over a short flow distance (less than 1 mm). The pressure drop is around 6 mmHg in normal eyes and can be as much as 40 mmHg in glaucomatous eyes. That such a small flow and in a minimum distance and that it results in a marked drop in intraocular pressure is inexplicable. The various theories and mathematical models that have been proposed for its explanation have not succeeded. Our discovery of the unsuspected capacity of the eukaryotic cell to dissociate the water molecule opens a completely new horizon in this regard.