The limbus: Structure and function.

Limbal function is a key determinant of corneal epithelial integrity. Lineage tracing studies in mice have highlighted that the centripetal movement of epithelial progenitors from the limbus drives both the steady-state maintenance of the corneal epithelium and its regeneration following injury. It is well established that this is facilitated by a population of limbal epithelial stem cells within the limbus.

A validated porcine corneal organ culture model to study the limbal response to corneal epithelial injury.

Limbal epithelial stem cells are required for the maintenance and repair of the corneal epithelial surface. The difficulty in obtaining human corneal tissue for research purposes means that animal models for studying the corneal and limbal epithelium are extremely useful. Porcine corneal tissue represents an attractive experimental model, however, functional analysis of the limbal epithelial cell population is needed to validate the use of this tissue.

Do patients actually do what we ask: patient fidelity and persistence to the Targets and Self-Management for the Control of Blood Pressure in Stroke and at Risk Groups blood pressure self-management intervention.

Objective: Self-management of hypertension can reduce and control blood pressure (BP) compared with clinic monitoring. However, self-management relies on patients following an algorithm, which may be variably adhered to. This study reports fidelity of high-risk patients to the self-management algorithm set by the TASMIN-SR trial.