PURPOSE Type I collagen synthesis in corneal endothelial cells does not correlate with steady state collagen RNA levels; although substantial amounts of alpha 2(I) collagen RNA are present in these cells, type I collagen is not detected. This allowed the authors to investigate the possibility of posttranscriptional control of type I collagen in corneal endothelial cells. METHODS The alpha 2(I...

PURPOSE To investigate whether apoptosis plays a notable role in degeneration of corneal endothelial cells in patients with Fuchs' dystrophy. METHODS Forty-seven corneal buttons from 41 patients with Fuchs' dystrophy were studied. Nucleus labeling, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and TdT-dUTP terminal nick-end labeling (TUNEL) were used to detect apoptosis. TEM and TUNEL were performe...

PURPOSE To determine the effectiveness of multigene-based anti-angiogenic gene therapies for experimental murine corneal neovascularization (corneal NV). METHODS Recombinant retroviral vectors encoding murine endostatin (mEndo), murine-soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (msFlk-1), or murine-soluble Tie2 (msTie2) were constructed and packaged in PT67 cells. Viral titers were...

The PPCD1 mouse, a spontaneous mutant that arose in our mouse colony, is characterized by an enlarged anterior chamber resulting from metaplasia of the corneal endothelium and blockage of the iridocorneal angle by epithelialized corneal endothelial cells. The presence of stratified multilayered corneal endothelial cells with abnormal patterns of cytokeratin expression are remarkably similar to ...

Corneal endothelial cells (CECs) are essential for maintaining corneal stromal hydration and ensuring its transparency, which is necessary for normal vision. Dysfunction of CECs leads to stromal decompensation, loss of transparency and corneal blindness. Corneal endothelium has low proliferative potential compared to surface epithelial cells leading to poor regeneration of CEC following injury....

human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (hbmscs) have the potential to differentiate into cells such as adipocyte, osteocyte, hepatocyte and endothelial cells. in this study, the differentiation of hbmscs into endothelial like-cells was induced in presence of vascular endothelial growth factor (vegf) and insulin-like growth factor (igf-1). the differentiated endothelial cells were exam...