Lrig family controls corneal stem cell homeostasis

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Corneal integrity and transparency is indispensable for good vision. The findings of this present study show that Lrig1 was highly expressed in the holoclone-type corneal epithelial stem cell population, and that Lrig1 was sporadically expressed in the basal cells of ocular-surface epithelium to regulate corneal epithelial cell fate during wound repair. Loss of Lrig1 resulted in impaired recruitment of stem cells post wounding, and in the cell-fate switch from transparent epithelium to keratinized skin-like epidermis, leading to corneal blindness. Lrig1 controlled corneal cell fate during repair by negatively regulating the STAT3-dependent inflammatory pathway, and blocking STAT3 rescued the pathological phenotypes observed in Lrig1 KO corneas. Here, we demonstrate that Lrig1 orchestrates corneal-tissue transparency and cell fate during repair.