Aging and corneal layers: an in vivo corneal confocal microscopy study

Abstract

Corneal confocal microscopy allows a non-invasive examination of the living cornea, analyzing the microstructure of each corneal layer. Aging significantly influences the corneal confocal microscopy parameters of individual corneal layers, except sub-basal nerve plexus and basal epithelium.

Age related changes seen in human cornea in formalin fixed sections and on biomicroscopy in living subjects: A comparison

“…Corneal images acquired by in‐vivo specular and CM provide clinical information on changes in corneal structures that occur during aging. Indeed, the normal hexagonal shape of endothelial cells is usually affected by age, with older patients showing discontinuous and partially swollen endothelial cells (Gambato et al, ). Moreover, corneal ECD decreases as well as the number of keratocytes.…”

Overview of the Cornea

“…Confocal microscopy reveals endothelial cell loss over a lifetime at a rate of 10.92 cells/mm 2 per year. 44 A loss of corneal endothelial density to several hundred cells per mm 2 , which may occur from intraocular surgery or other trauma, generally results in corneal edema.…”

New parameters in assessment of human donor corneal stroma

“…The average keratocyte density in human donor corneas was consistent with the results reported by Moller-Pedersen et al (Moller-Pederson et al 1994). Low keratocyte density in donor tissue could be explained by ageing (donors were older than controls), post-mortem loss of cells induced by ischaemia and/ or storage of donor tissue (Borderie et al 1997;Patel et al 2001;Komuro et al 1999;Gambato et al 2015). As a result, keratocyte density in human donor corneas did not significantly differ from pathological corneas.…”

“…This is a potential advantage of FFOCM over CM (where keratocyte density counts must be made on enface views, which requires multiple slices and therefore is more time-consuming) or SD-OCT (where individual keratocytes are not resolved). Low keratocyte density in donor tissue could be explained by ageing (donors were older than controls), post-mortem loss of cells induced by ischaemia and/ or storage of donor tissue (Borderie et al 1997;Patel et al 2001;Komuro et al 1999;Gambato et al 2015). Furthermore, the first 2% of the corneal stroma featured very high keratocyte density.…”