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).