title: Comparison of rabbit corneal endothelial cell precursors in the central and peripheral cornea.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the distribution and self-renewal capacity of rabbit corneal endothelial cell precursors in the central and peripheral regions of the cornea.
  
  
  METHODS
  The corneal endothelium (CE) and Descemet's membrane of New Zealand White rabbit corneas were divided into a peripheral region (6.0-10.0 mm in diameter) and a central region (6.0 mm in diameter). Then a sphere-forming assay was performed to isolate precursors from the CE of each region. Numbers of primary and secondary sphere colonies and sizes of primary spheres were compared between the central and peripheral regions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Primary spheres were isolated from the peripheral and the central regions of the CE. The rate of primary sphere formation in the peripheral region (34.4 +/- 10.4/10,000 cells) was significantly higher than in the central cornea (26.8 +/- 6.6/10,000 cells; P = 0.0042), but there was no significant difference in the size of primary spheres between the two regions. Self-renewal capacity was higher in the peripheral region than in the central region, as evidenced by a significantly higher secondary sphere formation rate for cells from the periphery (39.0 +/- 8.8/10,000 cells) compared with that for cells from the central region (25.4 +/- 4.2/10,000 cells; P = 0.00028).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings demonstrate that peripheral and central rabbit corneal epithelia contain a significant number of precursors but that the peripheral endothelium contains more precursors and has a stronger self-renewal capacity than the central region.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mimura
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamagami
authors.forename: Seiichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yokoo
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Araie
authors.forename: Shiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D048429:Cell Size; D004728:Endothelium, Corneal / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development; D011817:Rabbits; D018874:Spheroids, Cellular / Q000166:cytology*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*