Fig. 1: Arrangement of collagen and proteoglycans in the human cornea.
From: Structural control of corneal transparency, refractive power and dynamics
A Transmission electron micrograph of corneal collagen fibrils in cross-section stained with phosphotungstic acid and uranyl acetate. B Longitudinal section of corneal collagen fibrils counterstained with cuprolinic blue to visualise proteoglycans. C The collagen and proteoglycan organisation in the corneal stroma. Fibrils contain collagen molecules staggered axially to produce a periodic banding along the fibril axis. The protein cores of the proteoglycans (green) are associated with the fibrils at specific binding sites. Attached to the protein cores are either keratan sulphate glycosaminoglycans (orange) or dermatan/chondroitin sulphate glycosaminoglycans (red). A, B supplied by Dr Rob Young and Prof Andrew Quantock (Cardiff University) and (C) reproduced from Meek and Hayes [39].
