Fig. 6: Postoperative outcomes of cell injections in corneas with excimer laser-induced chronic opacity.

a Experimental setup and timeline. The quiescent corneal stromal keratocytes (qCSKs) and stromal fibroblasts (SFs) injection outcomes were compared to the non-treated corneas. b The corneal imaging showed that qCSKs had the best therapeutic efficiency. SF injection exacerbated the haze and neovascularization (NV) severity in a similar manner to the non-treated corneas. The slit-lamp observation concurred with the haze (c), NV (d), and total grades (e), and was further substantiated by the in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM)-based haze density measurements (f). The dash line indicates the mean of haze density preoperatively. In the box plots, the center line shows the median score; box limits show the 1st and 3rd quartile; whiskers show minimum and maximum values; and points indicate outliers. Statistical significance was analyzed with Kruskal–Wallis, followed by post hoc Dune-Bonferroni test. g The haze areas increased over time in the SF-injected and non-treated corneas. In contrast, treatment with qCSKs reduced the chronic haze area. The significant p values were relative to the qCSKs. h The central corneal thickness (CCT) returned to the preoperative state at a more rapid rate following qCSK injection compared to the non-treated group. The corneas remained thicker than the preoperated state even at 3 weeks after SF administration. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. Statistical significance was analyzed with one-way ANOVA, followed by post hoc Tukey test. The qCSKs, SFs, and non-treated are represented by blue, yellow, and gray in the box plots, bar graphs, and line graphs. n = 6 rats in each group. Scale bars = 100 µm. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.