Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose:To study whether the p63 is the maker for human limbal stem cells. Methods:Four keratoconus corneas and one corneal ectasia secondary to previous LASIK procedure were included in this study. The recipient corneas of above diseases were harvested after the penetrating keratoplasty surgery. The immunohistochemical staining of K3, p63 were performed. Results:For normal central corneal epithelium, the immunohistochemical expression was positive staining for K3, but negative staining for p63. However, the immunohistochemical expressions of p63 in the keratoconus and cornea ectasia were different from the normal cornea. The p63 -positive cells were significantly increased and scattered in the corneal epithelium layer especially in the basal layer in the keratoconus and corneal ectasia group. Conclusions: P63 was used for the marker of limbal stem cells. They are only staining for the basal layer of limbal epithelium but negative for the corneal epithelium. Basal layers of corneal epithelium was differentiated from the stem cells of limbus and called transient amplifying cells (TAC). Our results demonstrated that K3 and p63 were positive on the basal layer of keratoconus and ectasia corneas. The turn over rate of corneal epithelium in late stage of keratoconus and ectasia cornea is increasing which results in stimulating the proliferation and differentiation of corneal epithelial from the limbal stem cells. It indicates that p63 stained the TAC and was not the marker for stem cells.
Keywords: cornea: epithelium • keratoconus • cornea: basic science