Fig 1.
Surgical procedures involving the creation of corneal stromal defects by lamellar keratoplasty (LKP), followed by repair using transplantation of acellular porcine corneal stroma (APCS) sheets with keratocytes.
Fig 2.
(A) Porcine eye, (B) cornea with 2-mm scleral ring, (C) after the NaCl decellularization process, (D) after dehydration with sucrose, (E) a 20-μm-thick APCS, and (F) a 100-μm-thick APCS. (G) Histology of the APCS and normal corneal stroma using hematoxylin and eosin staining, Masson staining, and 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining. Scale bars: 100 μm. (H) Ultrastructure of APCS and normal cornea stroma by transmission electron microscope. Scale bars: 0.5 μm. (I) Keratocytes in a tissue culture plate (left, scale bar: 100 μm) and keratocytes grown on the APCS (right, scale bar: 10 μm).
Table 1.
Corneal opacity scored at 6 months post-operation.
Fig 3.
Gross views of repaired cornea postoperatively at 1, 3, and 6 months, and anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) examination postoperatively at 6 months.
Fig 4.
The thickness and transmittance of repaired cornea postoperatively at 6 months.
(A) The thickness of each cornea was measured using an ultrasonic pachymeter (n = 6 in each group). (B) The light transmittance of each cornea was recorded using a UV/Vis/NIR spectrometer (n = 6 in each group). *P < 0.05 compared with normal cornea.
Fig 5.
Biomechanical properties of repaired cornea postoperatively at 6 months (n = 6 in each group).
*P < 0.05 compared with normal cornea.
Fig 6.
Histological analysis of repaired cornea using hematoxylin and eosin staining and Masson staining.
*Undegraded APCS. Scale bars in low-magnification photographs: 500 μm. Scale bars in high-magnification photographs: 100 μm.