The limbal epithelial cells can be maintained on 3T3 feeder layer with fetal bovine serum supplemented culture medium, and these cells have been used to successfully treat limbal stem cell deficiency. However, fetal bovine serum contains unknown components and displays quantitative and qualitative lot-to-lot variations. To improve the culture condition, the defined KnockOut serum replacement wa...

PURPOSE The management of severe ocular surface disease due to limbal stem cell deficiency has changed dramatically. The concept of limbal stem cells, as the source of corneal epithelium revolutionised the therapeutic approach of ocular surface reconstruction. Deficiency of limbal stem cells results in blinding ocular surface diseases. Grafting viable limbal tissue, from either fellow healthy e...

PURPOSE The clinical success of treating corneas with total limbal stem cell deficiency using limbal biopsy explants cultured on intact amniotic membrane (iAM) relies on ex vivo expansion of limbal epithelial progenitor cells. However, the ultimate fate of limbal epithelial progenitor cells in the explant remains unclear. METHODS Human limbal explants were cultured on iAM for 2 weeks and then...

PURPOSE To determine the correlation between the squamous metaplasia grade of the corneal surface and the clinical severity of the limbal deficiency in patients with this disorder. METHODS We studied 98 eyes of patients with limbal deficiency by impression cytology. These patients were divided into four groups in relation to their clinical severity: 14 eyes had no symptoms, 34 eyes showed a m...

Corneal epithelium is a self-renewing tissue. Recent studies indicate that corneal epithelial stem cells reside preferentially in the basal layer of peripheral cornea in the limbal zone, rather than uniformly in the entire corneal epithelium. This idea is supported by a unique limbal/corneal expression pattern of the K3 keratin marker for corneal-type differentiation; the preferential distribut...

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...

background: the aim of this study is to create an ex vivo model to examine the expression of two heat shock protein 70 (hsp70) family members, heat shock protein 72 (hsp72) and heat shock constitute protein 70 (hsc70), at the mrna and protein levels in differentiating corneal cells from air exposed limbal stem cells. materials and methods: limbal biopsies were cultured as explants on a cellular...

The effects of sclerocorneal limbal stem cell autograft transplantation in dogs with corneal wounds were studied. Eighteen dogs were divided in two groups (GI and GII). The animals of GI (n=12) underwent limbal transplantation 30 days after the destruction of limbal stem cells. The dogs of GII (n=6) only underwent destruction of stem cells (control group). Light microscopy examination of the ri...

PURPOSE To describe the phenotypic characteristics of a limbal epithelial cell sheet outgrowth from a limbal explant cultured on amniotic membrane. METHOD Immunofluorescent staining and confocal microscopy were used to examine the expressions of p63, Ki-67, keratins 3 and 14, connexin 43, and the integrin alpha6/beta4 and alpha3/beta1 subunits in corneal and limbal tissues in a limbal explant...

purpose: to describe a novel surgical technique for in vivo limbal stem cell cultivation for reconstruction of corneal epithelium in total limbal stem cell deficiency (lscd). methods: patients suffering from chronic total unilateral lscd due to a chemical injury were sequentially included. one small limbal block (2x1 mm) harvested from contralateral healthy eye sutured over the amniotic membran...