Figure 2.

(Top Left) Location of the limbal niche (green box) in the normal eye of a 26-year-old man. (Lower Left) Confocal image of the limbal niche that is responsible for maintaining the corneal epithelial phenotype. (Top Right) The left eye of the man suffered a chemical injury 2 years before. The injury destroyed his limbal niche (red box). Consequently, the corneal epithelium has a conjunctival phenotype derived from the adjacent conjunctiva. (Lower Right) Confocal image of the damaged limbal niche.