Abstract
Purpose: :
Sclerocornea leads to total corneal opaque that can result in the loss of vision. Corneal epithelial cells play important role to maintain the transparency of cornea. To determine the expression phenotype of corneaql epithelial cells in sclerocornea, in this study we investigate the corneal tissues obtained from the sclerocornea patients who underwent corneal transplantation.
Methods: :
Six patients from diagnostic sclerocornea, the corneal tissues were obtained after penetrating keratoplasty. The recepient corneal button were sent to perform immunohistochemistry and TEM exam.Immunoconfocal microscopy for keratin (K) 3, -12, -19, ABCG2, pan-p63; connexin (Cx)43; MUC5AC; laminin-5 and Fibronectin was performed in those specimens as well as in the normal corneal tissues obtained from eye bank. The antibody of corneal epithelial marker including Cx43, k3, K12, and stem cell marker including p63 and ABCG2 were performed and conjunctival epithelial phenotype marker includibng k19, laminin-5 were performed.
Results: :
All specimens were unanimously positive for K3, -12, -19, and connexin 43, partial positive for laminin-5 but negative for ABCG2, MUC5AC , and Fibronectin, suggesting that the keratinocytes were corneal epithelial cells-derived rather than conjunctival cell-derived.
Conclusions: :
This study demonstrated the persistence of corneal epithelial phenotypes in the human sclerocornea.
Keywords: cornea: epithelium • cornea: basic science • pathology: human