Pilot Studies On The Localization Of Conjunctival Epithelial Stem Cells In The Middle Fetuses

ObjectiveTo judge the localization of conjunctival epithelial stem cells, we used im-munohistochemistry staining to detect PCNA, K14, K7, K9and P63 in fetuses which were in the period of middle gestion. Though the experiments we hope to find something helpful to study conjunctival epithelial stem cells and locate them accurately.Material and MethodsWe obtained 16 fetal eyes from 8 fetuses which were 17weeks, 19weeks, 20weeks and 23 weeks old. Six of them were female, the other were male. The eyes including eyelids were separated from the bidies, the poster sclera , the skin and subcutaneous tissues were removed expect the lid rim. Then the eyeballs were sagittaly scissored into strips. In each strip, the entire conjunctiva exending from limbus up to the palpebral muco - cutaneous junction (referred here as pal-pebral margin) was evaluated. The strips were fixed in 4% polyformaldehyde, made into paraffin sections, and stained with HE. We observed the location, morphology and structure of the palpebral muco - cutaneous junction, the palpebral, the fornical and the bulbar conjunctiva, as well as the linbus. We also observed the expression of PCNA,P63,K7,K19and K14 through the light microscopy after SP immunohistochemistry staining.