Figure 7. α-Smooth muscle actin immunostaining of corneas 6 weeks post-injury

α-SMA immunostaining performed on partial debridement, total debridement, and alkali burn corneas 6 wks post-injury and a non-wounded control. The presence of the red color (AP reaction) in the corneal stroma denotes a positive reaction for α-SMA. Partial epithelial debridement corneas have low levels of α-SMA expression; whereas, total and alkali burn corneas have high levels of α-SMA expression due to the large presence of blood vessels and myofibroblasts.