Figure 2. Corneas cultured at the air-liquid interface. For each condition (E=control with the epithelium and the limbus intact; WE=wounded
without prior removal of the epithelium and limbus; WET=as WE but with TGF-β1 added at 10 ng/ml; WT=wounded after prior removal
of the epithelium and limbus plus TGF-β1 added at 10 ng/ml), keratocyte activation (see arrows) and stromal disorganization
were assessed with hematoxylin phloxine saffron (HPS) staining (scale bars: 100 µm (row 1), 50 µm (row 2)), expression of
α-smooth muscle actin (SMA), fibronectin (FN), tenascin C (TNC) and thrombospondin-1 (TSP) by immunofluorescence (scale bars=100
µm), and corneal opacity (OP) by the ability to read Arial 8 characters (number of opaque corneas/total number of corneas
examined for each condition). Each figure shows the wound region only, except the control E, which shows the central part
of the cornea.