PURPOSE To examine the expression of transforming growth factor family members bone morphogenic proteins 2 and 4 (BMP2, BMP4), their receptor mRNAs, and BMP2 and BMP4 proteins in the cells of the human cornea. The effects of BMP2 and BMP4 on corneal fibroblast proliferation and apoptosis were also examined. METHODS Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, immunoprecipitation, and west...

PURPOSE Structural changes are well known to occur in the cornea after injury. The aim of this study was to investigate collagen orientation changes in the cornea during a short-term wound healing process. METHODS Seven bovine corneas were injured using a penetrating 5 mm biopsy punch and were subsequently organ cultured for up to two weeks. Six uninjured corneas acted as controls. The trephi...

PURPOSE Previous studies have suggested that the disappearance of anterior keratocytes after injury to the overlying epithelium is mediated by apoptosis. The authors examined the expression of the apoptosis-related modulators, Fas (receptor), Fas ligand, Bax, Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, and interleukin-1 beta converting enzyme (ICE) in corneal cells as candidate mediators of this response and tested the eff...

Introduction: Keratoconus is a relatively common disease of cornea in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change to a conical shape and scar at the central portion of cornea. So far, few methods and drug treatments were introduced due to both lack of accepted animal models to induce experimental keratoconus and limitation of research in human considering ethical issu...

The authors compared cytoskeletal elements of the in situ human trabecular-meshwork cell with in situ human corneal cells using indirect immunofluorescence staining for tubulin and intermediate filaments (vimentin, cytokeratin, and desmin) and NBD-phallacidin staining for f-actin using both fixed frozen and unfixed frozen sections from postmortem eyes. Both f-actin and tubulin were found throug...

According to the concept of keratin pairing defined by tissue coexpression, a 55-kD/64-kD keratin pair is a marker of "corneal-type" differentiation. Intermediate filament (IF)-enriched preparations from guinea pig and bovine corneal epithelium were analyzed, and a rabbit antiserum was generated against a 55-kD polypeptide enriched in these preparations. This antiserum generated a typical IF-li...

We aimed to quantify the penetration of ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, and moxifloxacin into the cornea and aqueous humor of cadaver eyes. A total of 60 enucleated eyes, not eligible for corneal transplantation, were divided into three groups and immersed in commercial solutions of 0.3% ciprofloxacin, 0.3% ofloxacin, or 0.5% moxifloxacin for 10 min. Whole corneas and samples of aqueous humor were th...

This report describes a convenient reproducible ocular dissection technique which has important applications for ocular antimicrobial penetration studies. Different ocular tissues can be sectioned while frozen and then plated directly on culture medium containing the test organism; after the zones of bacterial inhibition are measured at 18 hours following incubation, the tissue specimens are we...

purpose: to determine bacterial contamination of corneas and corneal storage media provided from the eye bank of i.r. iran to rasool akram medical center. methods: this descriptive study was performed on 70 corneoscleral rims and corneal storage media. one milliliter of corneal storage media and the corneoscleral rim were sent to microbiology laboratory at the time of penetrating keratoplasty a...

A scleral contact lens lies on the sclera, not cornea, which differs from a rigid gas permeable (RGP) lens, and has shown successful clinical outcomes in patients unable to tolerate glasses or RGP lenses because of severely deformed cornea. In addition, forms tear film between cornea that stabilizes ocular surface could be useful therapeutic option. The mini-scleral is option for visual improve...