Corneal Bioengineering

The cornea is the main structure of the ocular surface and enables the transmission of light entering the eye. The cornea is covered by a nonkeratinized stratified epithelium, which is renewed by stem cells located in the basal layer of the limbus. Injury and disease, such as chemical and thermal burns, can destroy the limbus leading to a limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) with consequent visual loss. In 1997, Pellegrini et al. firstly described the use of ex vivo cultured limbal epithelial stem cell to treat LSCD. Since then, several reports describing alternative methods of the clinical use of this technology have been published but the retention of stem cells, which is the essential property of the graft, has not been investigated. The definition of a graftable limbal culture in light of the clinical performance must follow specific quality criteria, here discussed, which are relevant for the future use of any cultured cell type for clinical application.