Dear Editor, In the treatment of unilateral total limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD), conjunctival limbal autograft (CLAU) surgery taken from the healthy fellow eye with or without amniotic membrane transplantation (AMT) is one of the main therapeutic alternatives. There are some controversies regarding the optimal size of the limbal graft necessary for complete and stable epithelialization of ...

purpose: to report the early results of transplantation of autologous limbal stem cell cultivated on amniotic membrane in total limbal stem cell deficiency. methods: four eye of 4 patients with total unilateral stem cell deficiency secondary to severe chemical or thermal burn were included. stem cell deficiency was confirmed with impression cytology in all cases. under topical anesthesia, a sma...

The major findings regarding corneal allograft rejection in experimental animals are reviewed. The principal anatomic and biological feature of the cornea that determines the immunologic privilege of this tissue is its avascularity. The surgical trauma of transplantation compromises the immunologic privilege, putting corneal allografts at risk for immune rejection. During the past 50 yr, rabbit...

PURPOSE It is crucial for the treatment of severe ocular surface diseases such as Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and ocular cicatricial pemphigoid (OCP) to find strategies that avoid the risks of allograft rejection and immunosuppression. Here, we report a new strategy for reconstructing the damaged corneal surface in a goat model of total limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) by autologous transp...

Case reports of six patients having pre-existing corneal irregularities were prepared. They included patients with keratoconus, hexagonal keratotomy, corneal transplant, LASIK, ABMD and previous penetrating injury. Pre and postoperative refraction and topography were analyzed. All patients received biaspheric IOLs and some received corneal or limbal relaxing incisions at the time of the surgica...

PURPOSE To examine the possibility that ocular surface epithelial cells might be grown in culture for use as grafts. METHODS The proliferative capacity of epithelial cells cultured from the conjunctiva, limbus, and central cornea of normal human eyes was compared. Single cells disaggregated from approximately 1 mm2 biopsy specimens were serially cocultured with lethally irradiated mouse 3T3 f...

PURPOSE Based on the knowledge that limbal epithelial stem cells (SCs) do not express keratin-3 (K3), connexin (Cx)43, and Cx50, a study was conducted to investigate amniotic membrane (AM) culturing conditions that promote limbal SC expansion. METHODS Human limbal epithelium was expanded on intact and epithelially denuded AM, with or without a 3T3 feeder layer, and subsequently transplanted t...

PURPOSE To report the efficacy of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells as a source of feeder cells for the cultivation of transplantable corneal epithelial cell sheets. METHODS Human mesenchymal stem cells (marrow adherent stem cells; MASCs) were cultured in alpha-modified Eagle's medium with 10% serum and were treated with mitomycin C. Expression of cytokines in MASCs was confirm...

Corneal epithelial stem cells or limbal stem cells (LSCs) are responsible for the maintenance of the corneal epithelium in humans. The exact location of LSCs is still under debate, but the increasing need for identifying the biological processes in the limbus, where LSCs are located, is of great importance in the regulation of LSCs. In our current study we identified 146 preferentially expresse...

Peripheral corneal ulcers can still pose difficult clinical problems despite therapeutic advances such as specific antimicrobial agents, collagenase inhibitors, heparin, ocular lubricants, biological adhesives, and soft contact lenses. This paper reports the healing of several types of progressive marginal ulcers after the excision and recession of adjacent limbal conjunctiva (limbal conjunctiv...