Figure 2. Corneal epithelial wound healing of W/W^v- and Sl/Sl^d mutant mice. A 2 mm corneal epithelial defect was made, and degree of recovery was measured every 6 h. Compared to WBB6F1^+/+ mice, the epithelial wound healing rates of both c-kit mutant mice and SCF mutant mice are significantly delayed (A). To determine the effect of topical rmSCF application on corneal epithelial wound healing, 5 µl of rmSCF (8 ng/ml) was applied topically to the wounded cornea every 6 h in WBB6F1^+/+ (B) and SCF mutant mice (C). The difference in the percentage of recovery is significant between WBB6F1^+/+ (B) and SCF mutant (C) mice. +/+=WBB6F₁^+/+ mice, W/W^v=c-kit mutant mice, Sl/Sl^d=SCF mutant mice. The error bars represent the standard errors (SE) from three experiments. *p<0.01 (paired students’ t test) against WBB6F1^+/+ mice or non-administrated controls.