The team was able to identify certain tissues that clearly belong to the eye, such as muscles and a lens. These parts are distinguishable from other body parts, such as bits of skin and eyebrow hair.
Next the team prepared the eyes for examination—a process that involved embedding the eyes in paraffin wax, slicing them for viewing under a microscope, and applying stains to highlight the tissues.
The team was able to identify specific structures inside the eyes. The two-year-old boy's eye was badly decomposed, but the lens was intact. The woman's was "remarkably well preserved," Lloyd said.
"There were portions of that eye that looked like they were just out of the operating room down the hallway, and this is from 750 years ago," he said. "It tells us we are on the right track to successfully rejuvenate these tissues."
Eye Exam
Aufderheide's previous research on the mummies' bodies revealed that they both suffered and recovered from bouts of pneumonia.
The boy also had an inherited liver disease. The woman had lice, bad teeth, and osteoporosis—a decalcification of the bones. A likely explanation for the condition, Aufderheide said, was a diet of plants rich in oxalates, compounds that interfere with calcium absorption.
Lloyd said his team hopes to use the eyes of the mummies to diagnose other diseases, applying the same techniques used in autopsies today.
"What types of disease affected these cultures, and are they similar or different to what we see today?" Lloyd said. "Not just cataracts and glaucoma, but what about diabetes, high blood pressure, infectious diseases?"
According to Aufderheide, the signature of various diseases is readily apparent in the eyes.
"For example, high blood pressure changes the arteries, and that is reflected when you look in the eye of a living person," he said.
Since arteries tend to be well preserved in mummies, Aufderheide said the chances are high for the signature of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to survive for hundreds of years.
Lloyd said finding the signature of these diseases in people that lived in the Americas before the time of Columbus would show that such ailments are ancient, and that genetics—not the modern environment or diet—may be their primary cause.
"It would be very cool to identify changes in the eyes of mummies that provide examples of these diseases a thousand years ago," he said.
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