An Ultrastructural Changes of Rat Corneal Epithelium and Stromal layer in Developmental Process

발생과정에 따른 흰쥐 각막의 상피층 및 실질층의 미세구조 변화에 관한 연구

The present study was conducted to investigate the structural changes in rat cornea. Sixty eyes from one-day-old uneyed rats, fourty eyes from 4-weeks-old rats, and foully eyes from 10-weeks-old adult rats were used. With the increase of age, the epithelial layer was thickened by the addition of new successive cellular layers. Then, the new-born rat's epithelial cells formed a pentagonal shape, and the quality of decidual cells showed a high electron-density, although the boundary between cells was distinctive. The newly produced cells showed a low electron-density so that there was the distinctive difference between light and darkness. In Bowman's layer, collagen fibrils demonstrate a regularly arranged structure along with the age. In stroma's layer, the density of keratocytes was decreased and thereby Progressively flattened during the development. The collagenous layer of the adult rats was more distinctive than that of the new-born rats in a form of parallel alignment running vertically and horizontally.