This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Epithelial cells regenerate in central corneal and periphery/limbus
Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2008;49(12):5279-5286.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Central corneal epithelial cells proved capable of corneal epithelial regeneration for 12 hours after a corneal injury was sustained.
"After wounding, the capacity for epithelial cell [proliferation] and migration appears to be as active in the central cornea as in the periphery/limbus," the study authors said. "Central and peripheral recovery remains equal even after ablation of the limbus."
Investigators used a human corneal organotypic culture model to evaluate corneal healing in vitro in 12 matched cornea pairs. Research focused on two types of ablation. One was a ring-shaped transepithelial area created by excimer laser, with an outer diameter of 7 mm, inner diameter of 3 mm and depth of 80 µm; the central and peripheral corneal epithelium were spared. The other type was an identical pattern with additional ablation of the limbal epithelium.
Time-lapse dark-field microscopy was used to follow corneal healing for up to 12 hours. Immunohistochemical markers were used to assess cell proliferation and migration.
In the first ring-shaped ablation model, corneal epithelial repair originated from the limbus and central corneal epithelium. The density of central epithelial cells increased 36% over the control cornea up to 12 hours after surgery; no change was seen at the periphery. Cell proliferation occurred over the entire cornea.