Figure 4.

Participation of LSCs in healing small and large central corneal wounds in wild-type and Has2^Δ/ΔCorEpi mice. (A) Schematic of the wounding model; the left eye was subjected to a central circular wound of 0.75 or 1.50 mm in diameter (0.75C or 1.5C, respectively), whereas the right eye was subjected to the same central wound, as well as removal of the limbal rim (0.75C+L or 1.5C+L, respectively). The debrided area is represented in gray and spared epithelium in white. Eyeballs were obtained 10 hours after injury, processed for histologic analysis and stained with phalloidin (B) and ΔNp63 (C). (D) Images were acquired of the ocular surface of wild-type mice treated with fluorescein under a stereomicroscope using the GFP filter immediately and 10 hours after injury. The migrated distance was calculated between 0 and 10 hours after injury for the 0.75 (E) and 1.50 mm wounds (F). Removal of the limbal area only affected the wound healing of larger central wounds, while the wound healing of smaller wounds was not affected. (G) Images were acquired of the ocular surface of Has2^Δ/ΔCorEpi mice treated with fluorescein under a stereomicroscope using the GFP filter immediately and 10 hours after injury. The migrated distance was calculated immediately and 10 hours after injury for the 0.75 (H) and 1.50 mm wounds (I). Removal of the limbal area had no effect on the wound healing of smaller or larger central wounds in Has2^Δ/ΔCorEpi mice. P^* ≤ 0.05 and ^**P ≤ 0.01. Scale bar represents 20 µm.