A Surgical Cryoprobe for Targeted Transcorneal Freezing and Endothelial Cell Removal

Figure 5

TEM of the corneal epithelium (Ep), epithelial basement membrane (BM), and stroma (St) following a 3 sec transcorneal freeze injury using a 2.4 mm diameter/concave profile cryoprobe on rabbit cornea in vivo. (a) The peripheral epithelium away from the wound zone, 24 hrs after the cryoprobe was applied and appeared morphologically normal. Arrowheads indicate microvilli on apical surface of epithelial cells. (b) Intact basement membrane is observed in the central freeze-injured area 24 hrs postfreeze. (c) After 24 hrs freeze injury, occasional focal regions of stromal matrix disruption were evident in the cornea, manifesting as tissue regions with increased spacing between collagen fibrils. (d) One month after the freezing, throughout the cornea, the spacing between collagen fibril appeared normal. Scale bars, 1 μm (a and b) and 0.5 μm (c and d).

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