PURPOSE To examine the feasibility of using sterilized, freeze-dried amniotic membrane (FD-AM) as a substrate for cultivating autologous corneal epithelial cells for ocular surface reconstruction. METHODS Human AM deprived of amniotic epithelial cells by incubation with EDTA was freeze dried, vacuum packed, and sterilized with gamma-irradiation. The resultant FD-AM was characterized for its p...

Almost 300 million people are visually impaired worldwide due to various eye diseases such as cataracts, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and corneal diseases. Notably, ten million people are blind because of severe ocular surface diseases and the majority of cases occur in developing countries. Blinding ocular surface diseases have, however, become treatable by...

Human corneal epithelial cells are normally shed from the apical surface and replaced primarily by mitosis of basal cells. Growth factors may regulate this process, but the sources for the growth factors have not been fully established. One potential source for growth factors is tear fluid, and epidermal growth factor (EGF) has been detected in the lacrimal gland and in tears. However, the hydr...

PURPOSE In the epidermis, the highest clonogenicity, a feature of stem cells (SCs), is found in the smallest keratinocyte. In the limbal-corneal (LC) epithelium the SCs are exclusively localized in the basal epithelial layer of the limbal domain. The current study was conducted to determine whether this spatial SC arrangement is reflected in differences in the cell size between limbal and corne...

PURPOSE To evaluate and compare the proinflammatory and apoptotic effects of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in three rabbit corneal injury models using a new in vivo confocal microscope (IVCM) and immunohistological techniques. METHODS Adult male New Zealand albino rabbits were used in this study. Three corneal models were tested: corneal incision, corneal epithelium scraping, and corneal suture. T...

Bullous Keratopathy is the presence of corneal epithelial bullae, resulting from corneal endothelial disease. Bullous Keratopathy is caused by oedema of the cornea, resulting from failure of the corneal endothelium to maintain the normally dehydrated state of the cornea. Most frequently, it is due to Fuchs corneal endothelial dystrophy or corneal endothelial trauma. Fuchs dystrophy is a genetic...

PURPOSE To determine if human corneal and conjunctival epithelial synthesize MUC1 mucin, a membrane-spanning mucin present in a variety of simple epithelia. METHODS Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was carried out to examine the expression of MUC1 mRNA by epithelial cells, using total cellular RNA prepared from cultured corneal epithelial cells and conjunctival epithel...

PURPOSE Human corneal limbal stem cells mature and repopulate the superficial layers of the cornea throughout life. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that human corneal stem cells, derived from neural ectoderm, can exhibit functional neuronal properties. METHODS Human corneal limbal tissue (donor age 6 weeks to 92 years) was obtained from Upstate New York Transplant Services. Tissues we...

Corneal transplantation has evolved rapidly over the past decade, as surgeons strive to refine selective tissue transplantation to treat diseases that affect specific layers of the cornea. The first successful penetrating corneal transplantation was performed by Eduard Zirm in 1905. In 1931, Ramon Castroviejo, MD, while a fellow at Mayo Clinic, refined the techniques for penetrating keratoplast...