introduction to evaluate the expression patterns of cytokeratin (k) 12, 13, and 19 in normal epithelium of the human ocular surface to determine whether k13 could be used as a marker for conjunctival epithelium. methods: total rna was isolated from the human conjunctiva and central cornea. those transcripts that had threefolds or higher expression levels in the conjunctiva than the cornea were ...

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...

background  to report normal variations of the limbal structures using in vivo laser scanning confocal microscopy. methods: this was a retrospective study of fourteen eyes from 11 healthy individuals. confocal imaging of cornea and limbus was performed using heidelberg retina tomograph iii rostock corneal module. results: the typical structure of the palisades of vogt (pov) was detected in 57% ...

BACKGROUND/AIM Amniotic membrane (AM) transplantation effectively expands the remaining limbal epithelial stem cells in patients with partial limbal stem cell deficiency. The authors investigated whether this action could be produced ex vivo. METHODS The outgrowth rate on AM was compared among explants derived from human limbus, peripheral cornea, and central cornea. For outgrowth of human li...

: Limbal stem cell (LSC) deficiency is a visually debilitating condition caused by abnormal maintenance of LSCs. It is treated by transplantation of donor-derived limbal epithelial cells (LECs), the success of which depends on the presence and quality of LSCs within the transplant. Understanding the immunobiological responses of these cells within the transplants could improve cell engraftment ...

BACKGROUND Corneal renewal and repair are mediated by stem cells of the limbus, the narrow zone between the cornea and the bulbar conjunctiva. Ocular burns may destroy the limbus, causing limbal stem-cell deficiency. We investigated the long-term clinical results of cell therapy in patients with burn-related corneal destruction associated with limbal stem-cell deficiency, a highly disabling ocu...

Extracellular matrix plays an important role in stem cell niche which maintains the undifferentiated stem cell phenotype. Human corneal epithelial stem cells are presumed to reside mainly at the limbal basal epithelium. Efforts have been made to characterize different components of the extracellular matrix that are preferentially expressed at the limbus. Mounting evidence from experimental data...

PURPOSE To investigate the etiology of corneal dysfunction in the Pax6(+/-) mouse model of aniridia-related keratopathy. METHODS Mosaic patterns of X-gal staining were compared in the corneal and limbal epithelia of female Pax6(+/-) and Pax6(+/+) littermates, age 3 to 28 weeks, hemizygous for an X-linked LacZ transgene, and Pax6(+/+), LacZ(-)<-->Pax6(+/+), LacZ(+) and Pax6(+/+), LacZ(-)<-->Pa...

objective: to study the effects of different matrices and co-culture systems on cultured limbal stem cells (lscs). materials and methods: limbal explants were co-cultured with limbal fibroblasts (lf) and/or mouse embryonic fibroblasts (mef) on filter inserts coated with amniotic membrane (am), matrigel (mat) and collagen type i (col). results: this study revealed that am facilitated the cell mi...

Long-term preservation of corneal limbal epithelium may decrease its quality and change the molecular signature of the limbal epithelial stem cells. In this study we have investigated the molecular profile of isolated corneal epithelial cells that have been in storage for an extended time. Isolated cells were characterised by the expression profile of different cytokeratins and markers of squam...