Severe ocular surface disease can result in limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD), a condition leading to decreased visual acuity, photophobia, and ocular pain. To restore the ocular surface in advanced stem cell deficient corneas, an autologous or allogenic limbal stem cell transplantation is performed. In recent years, the risk of secondary LSCD due to removal of large limbal grafts has been sig...

Limbal epithelial stem cells may ameliorate limbal stem cell deficiency through secretion of therapeutic proteins, delivered to the cornea in a controlled manner using hydrogels. In the present study the secretome of alginate-encapsulated limbal epithelial stem cells is investigated. Conditioned medium was generated from limbal epithelial stem cells encapsulated in 1.2% (w/v) calcium alginate g...

: Limbal stem cell (LSC) deficiency is a visually debilitating condition caused by abnormal maintenance of LSCs. It is treated by transplantation of donor-derived limbal epithelial cells (LECs), the success of which depends on the presence and quality of LSCs within the transplant. Understanding the immunobiological responses of these cells within the transplants could improve cell engraftment ...

background  to report normal variations of the limbal structures using in vivo laser scanning confocal microscopy. methods: this was a retrospective study of fourteen eyes from 11 healthy individuals. confocal imaging of cornea and limbus was performed using heidelberg retina tomograph iii rostock corneal module. results: the typical structure of the palisades of vogt (pov) was detected in 57% ...

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 wer...

purpose : to review ocular surface abnormalities caused by exposure to mustard gas and current approaches to manage its delayed-onset complications methods : a total of 198 medical articles related to mustard gas were reviewed using known international medical databases, 114 articles were more relevant to the main aim were selected. results : mustard gas-related ocular injuries can be divided i...

The depletion of limbal stem cells due to various diseases leads to corneal opacification and visual loss. The unequivocal identification and isolation of limbal stem cells may be a considerable advantage because long-term, functional recovery of corneal epithelium is linked to graft constructs that retain viable stem cell populations. As specific markers of limbal stem cells, the ATP-binding c...