The corneal endothelium in xeroderma pigmentosum.

The corneal endothelia of 8 xeroderma pigmentosum patients were evaluated by means of a specular microscope. All cases but 1 showed decreased cell density and all cases of this series showed an increased coefficient of variation in cell area, compared to that of normal persons. The regression analysis between the cell density and age revealed a close affinity to that of the normal aging process when the ultraviolet-survival lethal dose of each patient was taken into consideration. The loss of corneal endothelial cells in the xeroderma pigmentosum patients may be caused at an extraordinary high rate, in proportion to their clonogenic ultraviolet-survival rate.