The culture and transplantation of human limbal stem cells.

The cornea is the clear front of the eye and its surface is composed of an epithelium. This is renewed by stem cells located at the limbus, which encircles the periphery of the cornea. These limbal stem cells become lost or deficient in the blinding disease of limbal stem cell deficiency. In this review article, we discuss the historical perspective in managing limbal stem cell deficiency as well as describing the more contemporary treatment options, and in particular the culture and transplantation of human limbal stem cells. This treatment was first proposed 13 years ago and many case series have been presented to date showing promising outcomes of this technique. However, challenges still remain in treating the debilitating disease of limbal stem cell deficiency. Here we discuss some of the questions, which remain to be answered in this field. (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.