title: Corneal epithelial stem cells and their niche at a glance.
abstract: The corneal epithelium acts as a protective barrier on the anterior ocular surface and is essential for maintaining transparency of the cornea and thus visual acuity. During both homeostasis and repair, the corneal epithelium is maintained by self-renewing stem cells, which persist throughout the lifetime of the organism. Importantly, as in other self-renewing tissues, the functional activity of corneal epithelial stem cells (CSCEs) is tightly regulated by the surrounding microenvironment, or niche, which provides a range of cues that maintain the stem cell population. This Cell Science at a Glance article and the accompanying poster will therefore aim to summarise our current understanding of the corneal epithelial stem cell niche and its role in regulating stem cell activity during homeostasis, repair and disease.
authors.affiliation: CMU, Department for Pathology and Immunology, Rue Michel Servet, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland Craig.Nowell@hcuge.ch.
authors.forename: Craig S
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6535-2643
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Nowell
authors.affiliation: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, School of Life Sciences, Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, Lausanne, Vaud, 1015, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Freddy
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Radtke
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019573:Epithelium, Corneal / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D055153:Stem Cell Niche; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*
keywords: Cornea epithelial stem cell; Stem cell niche; Tissue repair