Cornea1 Organ Culture

Long-term organ culture of human corneas offers a tool for conducting a variety of biochemical, histological, and wound-healing studies on human tissue in vitro. A requirement of any organ culture system is that cell differentiation and structural integrity of the tissue be maintained or even improved during culture The latter is particularly relevant in cornea1 organ culture, since available donor corneas are sometimes of poor quality These corneas are usually unsuitable for transplantation and are from older donors (>65 yr), from donors with known bacterial or viral infections at the time of death (e g., septicemia, hepatitis), or are rejected because of a low endothelial cell count, such as might occur following ocular surgery.