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. 2024 Mar 14;12(3):649. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines12030649

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© 2024 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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A schematic diagram elucidating corneal epithelial–stromal injury and stromal scar formation. In a corneal wound, the damaged epithelium triggers epithelial healing (cell migration and differentiation). The disrupted Bowman’s layer and the infiltration of neutrophils and macrophages allow the invasion of pro-fibrotic growth factors (GFs) and cytokines (CKs) into the stroma. This causes the surviving keratocytes to activate and transit into repair type stromal fibroblasts and contractile myofibroblasts, overproducing ECM proteins with disorganized arrangement and resulting in scar formation. Created with BioRender.com under license JX26IWLDIY, assessed on 1 March 2024.