Cultures of limbal stem cells can be safely used to successfully treat massive destruction of the human cornea. We emphasize the importance of a discipline for defining the suitability and the quality of cultured epithelial grafts, which are relevant to the future clinical use of any cultured cell type.

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This paper shows that chaotic dynamics and global indeterminacy may characterize the Lucas(1988)endogenous growth model in its local determinacy region of the parameter space. This is achieved by means of the Shilnikov(1965)theorem, which exploits the existence of a family of homoclinic orbits doubly asymptotic to the balanced growth path, when it is a saddle-focus. The economic implications of these results are also discussed

Cell therapy is an emerging therapeutic strategy aimed at replacing or repairing severely damaged tissues with cultured cells. Specifically, ocular burns cause depletion of limbal stem cells, which leads to corneal opacification and visual loss. Corneal stem cells are segregated in the basal layer of the limbus, which is the transitional zone of the epithelium located between the cornea and the bulbar conjunctiva. Autologous cultured limbal epithelial cells can restore damaged corneas. We sought to establish a culture system that allows preservation of limbal stem cells and preparation of manageable epithelial sheets. We outline some quality criteria, which assure the clinical performance of keratinocyte culture: evaluation of the number of holoclones within a cultured epithelial graft, proportion of aborting colonies, and percentage of cells expressing high levels of ΔNp63α.