Figure 6. Corneal incision induces the death of epithelial and stromal cells shortly after injury. Transverse sections of the cornea were labeled for TUNEL (A-F), DAPI (I, L, N, and O), or EtHD (J, M, N, and O). Corneas were obtained at 15 min (G and K-O), 2 h (B), 4 h (C), 1 day (D), 4 days (E) or 7 days (F) after injury. The green lines indicate Bowman’s membrane and the edge of the incision. Panel G is a whole-mount preparation of an acutely injured cornea that was labeled with EtHD. Panels H and K are DIC images of control and damaged corneas. Panels N and O are 2.5 fold enlargements of the boxed-out (yellow rectangles) areas in panel K. Arrows indicate the nuclei of dying cells. The calibration bar (50 µm) in panel F applies to panels A-F, the bar in panel in G applies to G alone and the bar in panel M applies to panels H-M. Abbreviations: epi – epithelium, str – stroma, endo – endothelium.