In their excellent recent report, published online as a recently accepted paper on July 14, 2010, Gruschwitz et al.
1 understandably omitted a 25-year-old paper of ours.
2 In it, Hseih and I isolated extracellular matrices (ECMs) from chick embryo fibroblasts and human and rabbit corneal stromal cells. These cells induced polarization and elongation of corneal endothelial cells in culture. By indirect immunofluorescence, fibronectin was seen as arrays of long fibers in fibroblastic ECM, whereas in endothelial ECM, fibronectin was found in discrete foci of short fibers. The morphology of endothelial cells in culture was associated with the structure of the ECM that was laid down: short fibers in clusters associated with a typical polygonal shape, with long polarized fibers inducing a fibroblastic appearance.
My coworkers and I applaud the authors and look forward to their future efforts.