The corneal epithelium is maintained by a small pool of tissue stem cells located at the limbus. Through certain injuries or diseases this pool of stem cells may get depleted. This leads to visual impairment. Standard treatment options include autologous or allogeneic limbal stem cell (LSC) transplantation, however graft rejection and chronic inflammation lowers the success rate over long time....

AIMS To assess the potential of electrospun poly(lactide-co-glycolide) membranes to provide a biodegradable cell carrier system for limbal epithelial cells. MATERIAL & METHODS 50:50 poly(lactide-co-glycolide) scaffolds were spun, sterilized and seeded with primary rabbit limbal epithelial cells. Cells were cultured on the scaffolds for 2 weeks and then examined by confocal microscopy, cryosec...

Corneal epithelium is maintained throughout life by well-orchestrated proliferation of limbal epithelial stem cells, followed by migration and maturation centripetally across the ocular surface. The present study sets out to explore the role tissue stiffness (compliance) may have in directing both differentiation and centripetal migration of limbal epithelial stem cells during homeostasis. For ...

The most efficient method to expand limbal stem cells (LSCs) in vitro for clinical transplantation is to culture single LSCs directly on growth-arrested mouse fibroblast 3T3 cells. To reduce possible xenobiotic contamination from 3T3s, primary human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) were examined as feeder cells to support the expansion of LSCs in vitro. To optimize the ASC-supported culture, f...

MicroRNAs are critical regulators of stem cell behavior. The miR-103/107 family is preferentially expressed in the stem cell-enriched corneal limbal epithelium and plays an important role in coordinating several intrinsic characteristics of limbal epithelial stem cells. To elucidate further the mechanisms by which miRs-103/107 function in regulating limbal epithelial stem cells, we investigate ...

The cornea requires constant epithelial renewal to maintain clarity for appropriate vision. A subset of stem cells residing at the limbus is primarily responsible for maintaining corneal epithelium homeostasis. Trauma and disease may lead to stem cell deficiency and therapeutic targeting to replenish the stemness capacity has been stalled by the lack of reliable corneal epithelial stem cell mar...

PURPOSE A previous report has described an ocular surface reconstruction method involving the use of cultivated corneal epithelium derived from limbal explants. In the current study, a new culture system was developed involving the in vitro propagation on amniotic membrane (AM) of epithelial cells from enzymatically dissociated limbal epithelium. The purpose of this new method is to produce a c...

PURPOSE To determine whether Notch-1, a ligand-activated transmembrane receptor known to maintain cells in an undifferentiated state, primarily progenitor cells in other systems, could be used as a stem cell marker in human limbal epithelium. METHODS Human corneoscleral tissues obtained from the Doheny Eye & Tissue Transplant Bank were prepared for cross section and whole mount analysis. Tiss...