Figure 2.

(A–C) Composites of overlapping low-magnification H&E-stained micrographs, representing sections across the diameter of a naive unexposed cornea and corneas exposed to CEES and NM. (D, E) High magnification of a region of a CEES-exposed cornea and of an NM-exposed cornea, showing the downward hyperplasia of the epithelial cells after mustard exposure, as well as rising of the nuclei in the basal epithelia in the NM-exposed sample. (F) Histogram representation of epithelial–stromal attachment derived from analysis of four unexposed corneas in culture for 24 hours, and from four corneas exposed to NM for 2 hours, followed by washing the cornea with medium, replacing medium, and incubating for an additional 22 hours at 37°C. The y-axis units are percentage epithelial–stromal attachment. The cornea in (C) has 68.8% of the epithelium detached from the cornea, that is, 31.2% epithelial–stromal integrity. Data are expressed as means ± SD and analyzed by using two-sided Student's t-tests. A value of P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. *P < 0.05. (G, H) Sections of unexposed and NM-exposed corneas at high magnification, stained at 24 hour post exposure with DiI (red) to indicate lipid membranes and DAPI (blue) to show the nuclei. Note how the nuclei have risen in the cell by comparing (H) to (G).