Cargando…
Corneal structure and transparency
The corneal stroma plays several pivotal roles within the eye. Optically, it is the main refracting lens and thus has to combine almost perfect transmission of visible light with precise shape, in order to focus incoming light. Furthermore, mechanically it has to be extremely tough to protect the in...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Pergamon
2015
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4655862/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26145225 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.preteyeres.2015.07.001 |
_version_ | 1782402230385639424 |
---|---|
author | Meek, Keith M. Knupp, Carlo |
author_facet | Meek, Keith M. Knupp, Carlo |
author_sort | Meek, Keith M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The corneal stroma plays several pivotal roles within the eye. Optically, it is the main refracting lens and thus has to combine almost perfect transmission of visible light with precise shape, in order to focus incoming light. Furthermore, mechanically it has to be extremely tough to protect the inner contents of the eye. These functions are governed by its structure at all hierarchical levels. The basic principles of corneal structure and transparency have been known for some time, but in recent years X-ray scattering and other methods have revealed that the details of this structure are far more complex than previously thought and that the intricacy of the arrangement of the collagenous lamellae provides the shape and the mechanical properties of the tissue. At the molecular level, modern technologies and theoretical modelling have started to explain exactly how the collagen fibrils are arranged within the stromal lamellae and how proteoglycans maintain this ultrastructure. In this review we describe the current state of knowledge about the three-dimensional stromal architecture at the microscopic level, and about the control mechanisms at the nanoscopic level that lead to optical transparency. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4655862 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Pergamon |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-46558622015-12-18 Corneal structure and transparency Meek, Keith M. Knupp, Carlo Prog Retin Eye Res Article The corneal stroma plays several pivotal roles within the eye. Optically, it is the main refracting lens and thus has to combine almost perfect transmission of visible light with precise shape, in order to focus incoming light. Furthermore, mechanically it has to be extremely tough to protect the inner contents of the eye. These functions are governed by its structure at all hierarchical levels. The basic principles of corneal structure and transparency have been known for some time, but in recent years X-ray scattering and other methods have revealed that the details of this structure are far more complex than previously thought and that the intricacy of the arrangement of the collagenous lamellae provides the shape and the mechanical properties of the tissue. At the molecular level, modern technologies and theoretical modelling have started to explain exactly how the collagen fibrils are arranged within the stromal lamellae and how proteoglycans maintain this ultrastructure. In this review we describe the current state of knowledge about the three-dimensional stromal architecture at the microscopic level, and about the control mechanisms at the nanoscopic level that lead to optical transparency. Pergamon 2015-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4655862/ /pubmed/26145225 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.preteyeres.2015.07.001 Text en © 2015 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Meek, Keith M. Knupp, Carlo Corneal structure and transparency |
title | Corneal structure and transparency |
title_full | Corneal structure and transparency |
title_fullStr | Corneal structure and transparency |
title_full_unstemmed | Corneal structure and transparency |
title_short | Corneal structure and transparency |
title_sort | corneal structure and transparency |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4655862/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26145225 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.preteyeres.2015.07.001 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT meekkeithm cornealstructureandtransparency AT knuppcarlo cornealstructureandtransparency |