Autologous transplantation of conjunctival epithelial stem cells

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We cultured corneal and conjunctival epithelial cells from donor eye and rabbit eye. Additionally, we developed an adult precursor/stem cell isolation method(the sphere-forming assay) for corneal and conjunctival epithelial cells. We demonstrated corneal and conjunctival precursor/stem cells possessed the higher proliferative capacity as indicated by BrDU staining and the immature state as indicated by nestin staining compared with cultured differentiated epithelial cells. We cultured conjunctival epithelial cells on the denuded amniotic membrane and demonstrated that cultured conjuncdtival epithelium formed three to four layers on amniotic membrane. After transplantation of cultured conjunctival epithelial sheet on the rabbit cornea with corneal epithelial opacity and conjunctival invasion onto cornea, transplanted rabbit cornea maintained corneal clarity. These results suggest that transplantation of reconstructed conjunctival epithelial sheet using cultured conjunctival epithelial cells to the cornea is a possible treatment strategy for treating total limbal stem cell deficiency.