Figure 3.

Organ-cultured normal cornea after de-swelling in a dextran-containing medium. (a) Cross-sectional slice with marked layers; EP, epithelium (38 mm thick); BM, Bowman’s layer (11 mm thick); S, stroma (510 mm thick); DM + E, Descemet’s membrane (10 mm thick) and endothelium. (b–g): ‘En-face’ images. (b) Superficial epithelial layer; (c) wing cell layer; (d) basal epithelial layer; (e) basal epithelial cells, basement membrane (hyper-reflective zones), and Bowman’s layer (hypo-reflective zones). (f) Stromal keratocytes and lamellae of collagen bundles. (g) Endothelial cells were revealed by decreasing axial resolution (sum of ten 1 mm thick slices). The bar shows 70 mm in (a) and 100 mm in (b–g). Reproduced from the study by Ghouali et al. ⁶² (www.tandfonline.com).