Figure 1 of Mimura, Mol Vis 2008; 14:1819-1828.


Figure 1. Schematic illustration and clinical findings. A: Fibroblast precursors were isolated from the rabbit corneal stroma using a sphere-forming assay. Corneal stroma was engineered by cultivating precursors in porous gelatin for one week. The engineered corneal stromal sheet with precursors was transplanted in a pocket of rabbit corneal stroma. B,C: Gelatin hydrogels (gelatin group), gelatin hydrogels with corneal fibroblasts (fibroblast/gelatin group), or gelatin hydrogels with corneal fibroblast precursors (precursor/gelatin group) were implanted into the corneal stroma (indicated by arrows in C). D-F: Representative photographs of corneas four weeks after transplantation in each group are shown. No corneal opacity and no rejection were observed in any group four weeks after transplantation (indicated by dotted white circles in D-F).