MORPHOLOGICAL AND MORPHOMETRIC ASPECTS OF PRIMATE CORNEA - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY WITH HUMAN CORNEA

Morphological and morphometric features of the cornea of 13 species of primates have been studied in ol-der to determine possible morphologi cal differences between them. The existence of relationships between d ifferent morphometric corneal variables was also examined to establish which variables best defined and characterized the cornea. The presen t aim is to determine which primate cornea resembles that of the human being most with a view to possible future clinical and experimental s tudies. The results obtained revealed that all the cornea under study presented similar morphological features. The relationship between tot al corneal thickness and corneal epithelial thickness was determined a s well as the relationship between epithelial thickness, the number of epithelial layers and the number of epithelial cells. However, the mo rphological pattern of Bowman's membrane and corneal endothelium diffe red in the species studied. Finally, the study indicates that the chim panzee and the gorilla are the species with a corneal morphometry whic h is closest to that of the human cornea.