Ping Guo, Hong Sun, Yuan Zhang, Sean Tighe, Shuangling Chen, Chen-Wei Su, Yongsong Liu, Hongxia Zhao, Min Hu, Yingting Zhu
Limbal niche cells located in the limbal Palisades of Vogt are mesenchymal stem cells that reside next to limbal basal epithelial cells. Limbal niche cells are progenitors that express embryonic stem cell markers such as Nanog, Nestin, Oct4, Rex1, Sox2 and SSEA4, mesenchymal cell markers such as CD73, CD90 and CD105, and angiogenesis markers such as Flk-1, CD31, CD34, VWF, PDGFRβ and α-SMA, but negative for CD45. In addition, the stemness of limbal niche cells can be maintained during their cell culture in a three-dimension environment...
April 20, 2018: Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine