The clear cornea functions like a window that controls the entry of light for visual information and plays a protective role. The failure of appropriate repair following corneal injury results in loss of corneal function. The limbal region of the cornea is thought to serve as a unique reservoir of corneal epithelial stem cells where limbal stem cells (LSC) contributed to the regeneration of cor...

We studied the paracellular permeability to mannitol of corneas with epithelium of corneal, limbal, or conjunctival origin. Corneas with epithelial defects reepithelialized by corneal or limbal epithelium were nonvascularized; the corneal permeability was initially increased and returned to normal 3 days later. When epithelial defects extended beyond the limbus, they were healed by conjunctival...

PURPOSE To determine whether epithelium-deprived corneal allografts covered with syngeneic epithelium display immune privilege in orthotopic transplantation and whether syngeneic epithelium containing antigen-presenting cells nullifies this effect. METHODS Epithelium-deprived allogeneic corneas (C57BL/6) and epithelium-deprived allogeneic corneas reconstituted with syngeneic (BALB/c) epitheli...

PURPOSE The authors have determined that the corneal and conjunctival epithelia of the rat produce a mucin-like glycoprotein at the apical surface of the epithelium. The purpose of this study was to determine if human ocular surface epithelium produces similar glycoproteins. METHODS Because our initial attempts at production of monoclonal antibodies yielded blood type A-specific antibodies, c...

How is the corneal epithelium restored when all of it plus the limbus have been eliminated? This investigation explored the possibility that this may be achieved through the conjunctival epithelium. The corneal epithelium of the right eye of 12 rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) was totally scraped followed by surgical excision of the limbus plus 1.0-1.5 mm of the adjacent conjunctiva. Antibiotics...

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 The healing process of some corneal wounds involves closure by stromal contraction and the renewal of the stratified epithelium. In wound gape injury such stromal contraction occurs with epithelial stratification. In previous in vitro studies of noncontracted and contracted corneal fibroblast-seeded collagen gels (FSCGs) it was shown that initiation of wound contraction by the myofibrob...

Corneal epithelium is a self-renewing tissue. Recent studies indicate that corneal epithelial stem cells reside preferentially in the basal layer of peripheral cornea in the limbal zone, rather than uniformly in the entire corneal epithelium. This idea is supported by a unique limbal/corneal expression pattern of the K3 keratin marker for corneal-type differentiation; the preferential distribut...

Ia antigen (class II antigen) is a histocompatibility antigen that foreign peptides associate with, before antigen presentation to T cells and subsequent triggering of the CD4 T cells. Although corneal epithelium is normally Ia negative it may become Ia positive under abnormal circumstances but the functional significance of this is uncertain. In this study the expression of Ia antigen on corne...

PURPOSE To determine the expression patterns of the retinoblastoma protein and the E2F transcription factor families in limbal and corneal epithelia and in corneal keratocytes in situ during corneal development and differentiation. METHODS Retinoblastoma protein (pRb) and its family members p107 and p130; E2F-1, -2, and -4, members of the E2F family of transcription factors; and Ki67, a marke...