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...

PURPOSE To evaluate the effects of dry eye on ocular surface protease activity and sight threatening corneal complications following ocular surface chemical injury. METHODS C57BL/6 mice were subjected to unilateral alkali burn (AB) with or without concomitant dry eye for 2 or 5 days. Mice were observed daily for appearance of corneal perforation. Whole corneas were harvested and lysed for RNA...

CERTAIN authors, such as Haab (1899), Kraupa (1924), and Walsh (1947), have suggested that there might be an inter-relation between certain diseases of the cornea and the condition of the corneal nerves. The diseases mentioned are recurrent erosion of the cornea, superficial punctate keratitis, herpetic keratitis, and certain forms of degeneration of the corneal epithelium. Neuroparalytic kerat...

PURPOSE To isolate dendritic cells (DC) from rat corneas and to examine their functions and surface markers in vitro. METHODS Cells were isolated enzymatically from dissected rat corneas and cultured for various intervals of time. Dendritic cells were enriched immunomagnetically from corneal cell preparations using monoclonal antibodies against DC surface antigens and tested for functional ac...

  Aims: Ocular injury by mustard gas (HD) leads to severe eye damage. Long term characterization of mustard gas ocular toxicity has not been described in detail yet. Present study was performed in order to explore chronic histological and immunopathologic effects of HD ocular exposure and try to find etiology for these effects.   Methods: This descriptive case study was performed on corneal and...

A prospective study was carried out to establish the time lost from work due to corneal foreign body injury. Data were collected over a 5 month period on a total of 504 patients attending a busy district hospital eye casualty department. The median time lost through injury was 4 hours and 148 patients (30%) took no time off work. Corneal foreign bodies are known to be painful injuries but in sp...

April 2011, Vol. 101, No. 4 SAMJ The patient sustained an accidental injury that resulted in broken glass causing a penetrating eye injury in her left eye. A corneal laceration with iris prolapse was not identified at a secondary hospital. Eight weeks after the injury, she presented at Groote Schuur Hospital complaining of decreased vision and severe pain in both eyes. The diagnosis was sympath...

Corneal abrasion not only damages the epithelium but also induces stromal keratocyte death at the site of injury. While a coordinated cascade of inflammatory cell recruitment facilitates epithelial restoration, it is unclear if this cascade is necessary for keratocyte recovery. Since platelet and neutrophil (PMN) recruitment after corneal abrasion is beneficial to epithelial wound healing, we w...

PURPOSE To determine the role of thrombomodulin (TM) in corneal epithelial wound healing, and to investigate whether recombinant TM epidermal growth factor-like domain plus serine/threonine-rich domain (rTMD23) has therapeutic potential in corneal epithelial wound healing. METHODS TM localization and expression in the murine cornea were examined by immunofluorescence staining. TM expression a...