Anatomical Features and Cell-Cell Interactions in the Human Limbal Epithelial Stem Cell Niche.

Epithelial stem cells of the ocular surface are essential for the maintenance of corneal transparency and therefore for vision. Human corneal/limbal epithelial stem cells (LESCs) are believed to reside in the limbus, the interface between the peripheral cornea and neighboring conjunctiva. A specific anatomical microenvironment called the niche regulates the proliferative and differentiation potential of LESCs and their daughter cells. This review covers multiple structural and functional aspects of the human limbal epithelial stem cell niche, including: anatomical features of the niche, composition of the local extracellular matrix, soluble factors and signaling pathways, interactions with surrounding stromal niche cells and melanocytes.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  The ocular surface

• Publication date

  2016-07-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.jtos.2016.04.002PMID 27151422
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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