Table 2.

Studies on the effects of stiffness on the corneal epithelium.

Author(s)	Methods	Results
Wu et al., 1995	Corneal epithelial cells cultures on living modified stromal substrates	Changes in cytoskeletal and adhesion protein distribution in response to different substrates
Johnson et al., 2007	Saline infusion to corneas mounted on an artificial anterior chamber	Elastic properties of corneas ex vivo demonstrate a buffering mechanism protecting the eye from intraocular pressure surges in vivo
Pierscionek et al., 2007	Saline intravitreal injections into fresh porcine eyes	Elastic moduli of cornea and sclera are independent of intraocular pressure but does affect scleral curvature
Jones et al., 2012	Compressed collagen substrates	Increased differentiation and cell number on stiffer gels
Foster et al., 2014	Collagen gels of increasing stiffness	Centripetal increase in nuclear localization of Yap with higher substrate stiffness
Raghunathan et al., 2014	Polymeric topographically patterned substrates	Differential expression of YAP and TAZ observed in limbus influenced by substratum topography
Molladavoodi et al., 2015	Polyacrylamide gels	Compliant substrates increase apoptosis and necrosis, less visible actin filaments and impaired cell migration
Nowell et al., 2016	Corneal wounding	Chronic inflammation can promote abnormal cell fate through mechanotransduction