The authors tried to determine whether human corneal endothelial cells in primary culture synthesize messenger RNA (mRNA) coding for epidermal growth factor (EGF), EGF receptor, basic fibroblast growth factor (FGFb), transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGFb1), and interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha). Oligodeoxythymidine-primed complementary DNA (cDNA) was generated from total cellular RNA extracted from eight independent primary corneal endothelial cell cultures. Four of these cultures, maintained 18-51 days, had obvious increases in cell numbers and mass over the 2 weeks before RNA extraction and were populated primarily with cells that were small, uniform, and mononuclear (proliferative cultures). The morphology of the cells in other four cultures, maintained 47-78 days, was predominantly large, irregular, vacuolated, and occasionally multinucleated. These cells were identical to senescent cells found in previous studies, and the cell number did not increase in these cultures over the 2 weeks preceding RNA extraction (senescent cultures). The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify the growth factors (EGF, FGFb, TGFb1, and IL-1 alpha), EGF receptor, and beta actin sequences from each of the cDNA samples. The EGF receptor, FGFb, and beta actin mRNAs were present in all eight cDNA samples. The EGF mRNAs were detected by PCR alone in four of the samples from proliferative cultures, TGFb1 mRNAs in three, and IL-1 alpha mRNAs in three. In the samples from senescent cultures, 0, 1, and 0 mRNAs were detected, respectively. Southern blots of the PCR products were probed with oligonucleotides complementary to sequences in each of the amplified products. This technique showed that the appropriately sized amplification products were specific.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)