Mariia Dvoriashyna

Fluid and solute transport across ocular epithelia

Fluid transport underpins many of the key physiological processes that occur in the eye. As a consequence, disorders of these transport processes account for much of the observed ocular pathology. Central to the eye's physiology are ocular epithelial layers, pivotal in regulating water transport.

In this talk, I will address transport across secretory epithelia. I will first review the physical mechanisms responsible for fluid transport across epithelial layers. These mechanisms include oncotic, osmotic and mechanical pressure differences across the layer, electro-osmosis along the clefts separating adjacent cells and local osmosis. I then discuss which of these mechanisms drive the flow across the retinal pigment epithelium (the outermost layer of the retina), that is responsible for the removal of fluid from the sub-retinal space; and the ciliary epithelium, which produces aqueous humour and is one of the key players for regulating the intraocular pressure.