Figure 1.

Characterization of cells extracted from healthy human cornea. Immunocytochemistry of the cells extracted from healthy human cornea after 24 h of culture in DMEM medium supplemented with either 0.1% or 2% fetal bovine serum (FBS) for 24 h shows that several cells were weakly stained for CD34 in 0.1% FBS condition (A) whereas the majority of cells showed a weak but positive staining in 2% FBS (B). ALDH (C and D) and lumican (G and H) stainings showed almost no positive reactions in both culture conditions. Keratocan was highly expressed in both 0.1% FBS (E) and 2% FBS (F) culture conditions. Western blot experiments were also performed on the cells and showed that all the markers were expressed by the cells in both culture conditions. Densitometry analysis further revealed no statistically significant (ns) difference in expression of CD34 between the cells cultured in 0.1% and 2% FBS (I). ALDH (J) and keratocan (K) had a significantly higher expression in cells cultured in 2% FBS than in 0.1% FBS (**p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001, respectively). On the contrary, cells expressed significantly more lumican (L) in the 0.1% FBS than in 2% FBS culture conditions (***p < 0.001). In addition, cells strongly expressed pro collagen I in both culture conditions, with a significantly higher expression in medium supplemented with 2% FBS (*p < 0.05) (M). Values are means ± SD.