The survival of donor-derived cells in a successfully grafted corneal button 10 years after penetrating keratoplasty for lattice dystrophy.

AIMS To investigate the survival of donor-derived cells in a successfully grafted corneal button 10 years after penetrating keratoplasty for lattice dystrophy. METHODS In 1996, a 48-year-old male with lattice corneal dystrophy underwent penetrating keratoplasty 3 times in the right eye within a 3-month interval. Nine years and 7 months later, the patient underwent a fourth penetrating keratoplasty. After surgery, the previous graft was analyzed to determine the origin of the cells. The epithelium and endothelium were removed, and then the button was dissected into 5 stromal blocks measuring 2 x 1.8 mm. Tissues underwent forensic genotyping using 16 markers (amelogenin for sex chromosomes and 15 autosomal short tandem repeats). Patient buccal tissue DNA was used as a control. RESULTS The epithelium and buccal tissue contained identical DNA (i.e. recipient DNA). Similarly, the most peripheral stromal tissue contained only recipient DNA. In contrast, the most central stromal tissue only contained DNA of nonrecipient origin (presumably donor), while the stromal tissue between the periphery and center contained both recipient and nonrecipient DNA. CONCLUSIONS The corneal stroma was infiltrated by surrounding recipient-derived keratocytes from the periphery. Therefore, more donor-derived cells had survived in the central stroma.