Author reply

We appreciate the interest of Heindl et al in our recent article in which we report the presence of ciliary body lymphatics in all melanoma eye cases studied. Our group was the first to identify lymphatics in the ciliary body of the normal human eye. The existence of lymphatic channels in human ciliary body stroma among muscle fibers was established using multiple markers, including D2-40 and LYVE-1, and a variety of imaging modalities, including immunogold electron microscopy. This was a major finding in light of the widely held belief that the eye has no lymphatics. We have provided further evidence that lymphatics play a role in aqueous outflow using tracer detected in ciliary body lymphatic channels and cervical lymph nodes, and that it can be measured.