title: Optical coherence tomography as a rapid, accurate, noncontact method of visualizing the palisades of Vogt.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study explored the efficacy of optical coherence tomography (OCT) as a high-resolution, noncontact method for imaging the palisades of Vogt by correlating OCT and confocal microscopy images.
  
  
  METHODS
  Human limbal rims were acquired and imaged with OCT and confocal microscopy. The area of the epithelial basement membrane in each of these sets was digitally reconstructed, and the models were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  OCT identified the palisades within the limbus and exhibited excellent structural correlation with immunostained tissue imaged by confocal microscopy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  OCT successfully identified the limbal palisades of Vogt that constitute the corneal epithelial stem cell niche. These findings offer the exciting potential to characterize the architecture of the palisades in vivo, to harvest stem cells for transplantation more accurately, to track palisade structure for better diagnosis, follow-up and staging of treatment, and to assess and intervene in the progression of stem cell depletion by monitoring changes in the structure of the palisades.
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Eye and Ear Institute, Room 1026, 203 Lothrop Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. lathropkl@upmc.edu
authors.forename: Kira L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Lathrop
authors.forename: Divya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kagemann
authors.forename: Joel S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Schuman
authors.forename: Nirmala
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sundarraj
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019573:Epithelium, Corneal / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016850:Limbus Corneae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008297:Male; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult