Figure 6. Analysis of EBM component mRNAs in the anterior stroma at 7 days after PRK with quantitative real-time PCR. Nidogen-1 mRNA
was statistically significantly increased in the anterior stroma of the −4.5D photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and –9.0D
PRK corneas compared to the unwounded control corneas, but the PRK groups were not statistically significantly different from
each other. The nidogen-2 mRNA was statistically significantly higher in the anterior stroma of the −4.5D PRK corneas at this
time point just before ultrastructural epithelial basement membrane (EBM) regeneration compared to the −9.0D PRK corneas that
are destined to not have ultrastructural EBM regeneration, and only the −4.5D PRK group was statistically significantly higher
than the unwounded control group. LAMA3 mRNA was statistically significantly increased in the anterior stroma of the −4.5D
PRK corneas at 7 days after surgery compared to the −9.0D PRK corneas or the unwounded control corneas. The difference between
the −9.0D PRK corneas and the unwounded control corneas for LAMA3 did not reach statistical significance. The perlecan mRNAs
were not statistically significantly increased in the anterior stroma of the PRK corneas from either group or the unwounded
control corneas group. (n = 4 for each group; ***, p<0.01).