The most difficult part in ocular surface reconstruction for total limbal stem cell deficiency is restoring a healthy and stable corneal epithelium. Recently, there has been a shift toward a cellular-based transplantation that eliminates the need for harvesting large amounts of limbal tissues from a living donor. The autologous oral epithelium can be used as a source for ocular surface reconstr...

OBJECTIVE To describe the ocular phenotype in patients with ectrodactyly-ectodermal dysplasia-clefting (EEC) syndrome (MIM#604292) and to determine the pathogenic basis of visual morbidity. DESIGN Retrospective case series. PARTICIPANTS Nineteen families (23 patients) affected by EEC syndrome from the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Italy. METHODS General medical examination to fulfill the d...

CASE REPORT A 33-year-old woman with superficial and deep bilateral corneal vascularization and keratoconjunctivitis sicca, keratoerythema and neurosensory deafness, was diagnosed with keratitis-ichthyosis-deafness (KID) syndrome. DISCUSSION KID syndrome is a congenital ectodermal dysplasia characterized by the association of vascularizing keratitis, hyperkeratotic skin lesions and sensorineu...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE The limbus is enriched with the stem cells of corneal epithelium. Auto- and allograft limbal transplantations are effective in restoring the corneal epithelium and inhibiting inflammation and neovascularization. Preserved human amniotic membrane (AM) is now widely used as a substrate for ocular surface reconstruction. The combination of limbal and AM transplantation has b...

A 19-year-old female who was a known case of multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) type 2, presented with gradual decrease of visual acuity in her left eye and bilateral corneal opacities which had developed over a 7 month period. She had nocturnal lagophthalmos since childhood, and history of a thyroid mass with increased serum levels of calcitonin for which subtotal thyroidectomy had been perfor...

Simple Limbal Epithelial Transplantation (SLET) has been proposed recently for care of total Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency (LSCD) secondary to alkali burn of cornea [1]. Reportedly it combines advantages of conjunctival limbal auto grafting [2] and cultivated limbal epithelial transplantation [3] by being a single-stage, affordable procedure utilizing minimal donor tissue. Besides, it is also rep...

PURPOSE To reconstruct a human hemicornea in vitro by means of limbal stem cells cultured onto human keratoplasty lenticules (HKLs) and to obtain a natural corneal graft for clinical applications. METHODS Limbal stem cells were seeded onto HKLs with or without the presence of feeder layers of lethally irradiated 3T3-J2 cells and compared with the current "gold standard" scaffold, i.e., the fi...

Cultured limbal tissue transplants have become widely used over the last decade as a treatment for limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD). While the number of patients afflicted with LSCD in Australia and New Zealand is considered to be relatively low, the impact of this disease on quality of life is so severe that the potential efficacy of cultured transplants has necessitated investigation. We pr...