Previous studies have shown that the corneal epithelial stem cells are located at the limbal basal layer. The limbal stem cells are regarded as the ultimate source for corneal epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation. This paper examines epithelial wound healing in rabbit corneas with partial limbal deficiency (PLD), which was created by the surgical removal of two-thirds of the limbal...

PURPOSE To study the short-term clinical results of transplanting of cultivated corneal/limbal epithelial cells on human amniotic membrane (AM) for limbal deficiency. DESIGN Noncomparative, retrospective interventional case series. PARTICIPANTS Thirteen eyes of 13 patients with severe limbal deficiency (Stevens-Johnson syndrome in eight eyes, ocular cicatricial pemphigoid in three eyes, and...

When the stem cells population is destroyed or their supporting stromal environment is dysfunctional, limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) manifests. Clinically, LSCD carries the hallmark of conjunctivalisation— that is, the corneal surface is covered by ingrowing conjunctival epithelium containing goblet cells. Conjunctivalisation is invariably associated with the destruction of the basement mem...

introduction to evaluate the expression patterns of cytokeratin (k) 12, 13, and 19 in normal epithelium of the human ocular surface to determine whether k13 could be used as a marker for conjunctival epithelium. methods: total rna was isolated from the human conjunctiva and central cornea. those transcripts that had threefolds or higher expression levels in the conjunctiva than the cornea were ...

We aimed to test previous predictions that limbal epithelial stem cells (LESCs) are quantitatively deficient or qualitatively defective in Pax6(+/-) mice and decline with age in wild-type (WT) mice. Consistent with previous studies, corneal epithelial stripe patterns coarsened with age in WT mosaics. Mosaic patterns were also coarser in Pax6(+/-) mosaics than WT at 15 weeks but not at 3 weeks, ...