Sphere-forming corneal cells repopulate dystrophic keratoconic stroma: Implications for potential therapy

Figure 4 Adenosine triphosphate binding cassette subfamily B member 5 and α-smooth muscle actin expression in spheres and migrated cells seeded onto keratoconic tissue sections. A, B, C: Spheres seeded onto keratoconic tissue sections were fixed at day 0, 1 and 4 post-implantation and double primary antibody immunolabelled with putative stem cell marker ATP binding cassette subfamily B member 5 (ABCB5) (red) and myofibroblast marker alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA) (green). Cell nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue). Confocal projection images of z stacks were taken. Spheres labelled positively with ABCB5 and αSMA at days 0 (A), 1 (B) and 4 (C); D: Migrated cells at days 1 and 4 appeared similar, a representative image at day 1 is shown; E: Spheres labelled with secondary antibody had no detectable red and green fluorescence when imaged at the same levels as A-C. Scale bar = 20 µm.