Histologic evaluation of a cornea in a patient with apolipoprotein A-I deficiency.
OBJECTIVE
To report the histology of a cornea in a patient with apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) deficiency.


METHODS
A cornea from a patient with apoA-I deficiency was obtained by keratoplasty and examined histologically.


RESULTS
There were many small vesicles in the extracellular matrix throughout the corneal stroma. The vesicles were round or oval, and their diameters ranged from 200 nm to 2 microm. These histologic properties suggest that the small vesicles are lipid droplets.


CONCLUSIONS
Myriad lipid droplets in the extracellular matrix in the corneal stroma induce diffuse corneal opacity in a patient with apoA-I deficiency.
Osakabe
Yasuhiro
Y
Department of Pathology, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
Amano
Shiro
S
Fukuoka
Shima
S
Yamagami
Satoru
S
D000368:Aged; D016632:Apolipoprotein A-I / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000235:genetics; D003315:Cornea / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D003318:Corneal Opacity / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D016368:Frameshift Mutation; D006801:Humans; D015948:Keratoplasty, Penetrating
D016632:Apolipoprotein A-I