Corneal Cells

A mammalian cornea can be maintained in vitro for days (1 ,2 ), allowing ex vivo transduction of this tissue prior to transplantation (3 ,4 ). Ex vivo transduction of the cornea is useful for studying the efficacy of gene products on inhibition of corneal neovascularization (4 ), amelioration of corneal inflammatory disease, or promotion of corneal wound healing in animal models. Ex vivo transduction can also be used for transfer of genes into corneal epithelial stem cells (5 ), thereby allowing genetically modified stem cells to be reimplanted into the limbal area (6 ), providing a means for long-term gene-replacement (e.g., βig-h3 gene) therapy for various inherited corneal diseases (7 ).