Abstract
Purpose: :
To investigate the potential for murine epidermal cell transdifferentiation into corneal epithelial-like cells.
Methods: :
use epidermal cells (MKCs) were isolated from K12Cre/ZEG mice which expressed GFP (green fluorescent protein) induced by a cornea-specific keratin 12 gene. The MKCs were cultured in serum free medium (CnT-07). Equal numbers of MKCs and normal mouse corneal epithelial cells (MCEs) from wild type mice were mixed and seeded (1x104/cm2) onto plastic, an amniotic membrane (AM), or an epithelium-denuded WT mouse cornea. The cells were cultured in serum free medium (CnT-30) with 0.4 mM Ca or SHEM (5% FBS) for 4 days and examined for GFP expression by fluorescence microscopy.
Results: :
GFP expression was detected in MKCs cultured on the epithelium-denuded mouse cornea with either CnT 30 or SHEM; however no GFP was detected in MKCs cultured on the plastic or AM. The GFP positive cells were predominantly detected in the corneal limbal region.
Conclusions: :
The present study demonstrates that MKCs have the potential to transdifferentiate into corneal epithelial-like cells. The results indicate that transdifferentiation may require the effect of coculture with corneal epithelial cells, as well as the corneal limbal environment.
Keywords: cornea: epithelium • gene/expression • cornea: basic science