Corneal confocal microscopy is a novel clinical technique for the study of corneal cellular structure. It provides images which are comparable to in-vitro histochemical techniques delineating corneal epithelium, Bowman's layer, stroma, Descemet's membrane and the corneal endothelium. Because, corneal confocal microscopy is a non invasive technique for in vivo imaging of the living cornea it has...

AIMS To further understand the effect of refractive error on the corneal dimensions and function. METHODS Corneal curvature, corneal thickness, and axial length measurements were performed, as well as specular microscopy and fluorophotometry, on patients with various refractive statuses. 216 subjects, mean age 22.2 (SD 4.2) years, were examined. Patients with previous contact lens wear histor...

Corneal epithelium is traditionally thought to be a self-sufficient, self-renewing tissue implying that its stem cells are located in its basal cell layer. Recent studies indicate however that corneal epithelial stem cells reside in the basal layer of peripheral cornea in the limbal zone, and that corneal and conjunctival epithelia represent distinct cell lineages. These ideas are supported by ...

Corneal keratoplasty (penetrating or lamellar) using cadaveric human tissue, is nowadays the main treatment for corneal endotelial dysfunctions. However, there is a worldwide shortage of donor corneas available for transplantation and about 53% of the world's population have no access to corneal transplantation. Generating a complete cornea by tissue engineering is still a tough goal, but an en...

Mahelkova et al. recently published an interesting study evaluating the corneal structures in buphthalmic eyes and healthy eyes in patients with unilateral congenital glaucoma by using confocal microscopy. The authors reported statistically significant increase of the basal epithelial cell density and significant reduction of the endothelial cell density in the buphthalmic eyes, whereas the dif...

PURPOSE To validate the estimation of corneal aberrations from videokeratography against a laser ray tracing technique that measured total eye aberrations, in eyes without keratoconus (ie, cornea-dominated wave aberrations). METHODS We measured total and corneal wave aberrations of three eyes diagnosed with keratoconus by slit-lamp microscopy and corneal topography: two eyes from one patient ...

PURPOSE To determine whether anterior chamber-associated immune deviation (ACAID) promotes corneal allograft survival. METHODS CB6F1 mice were grafted with orthotopic corneal transplants from C3H donors (mismatch at the entire major histocompatibility complex plus multiple minor histocompatibility loci) and from NZB donors (mismatch only at multiple minor histocompatibility loci). ACAID was i...

PURPOSE To evaluate the effects of pirfenidone nanoparticles on corneal re-epithelialization and scarring, major clinical challenges after alkali burn. METHODS Effect of pirfenidone on collagen I and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) synthesis by TGFβ induced primary corneal fibroblast cells was evaluated by immunoblotting and immunocytochemistry. Pirfenidone loaded poly (lactide-co-glycolide) (P...

PURPOSE To investigate the effects of corneal fibroblasts on the differentiation of corneal epithelial cells in a coculture system based on a collagen vitrigel membrane. METHODS Simian virus 40-transformed human corneal epithelial (HCE) cells and human corneal fibroblasts were cultured on opposite sides of a collagen vitrigel membrane. The distribution of HCE cells and corneal fibroblasts on ...

The transparent corneal stroma contains a population of corneal fibroblasts termed keratocytes, which are interspersed between the collagen lamellae. Under normal conditions, the keratocytes are quiescent and transparent. However, after corneal injury the keratocytes become activated and transform into backscattering wound-healing fibroblasts resulting in corneal opacification. At present, the ...