PURPOSE: The ocular surface is covered by two biologically distinct epithelia: corneal and conjunctival. The expression of @entity16915 ( @entity16915 ) is currently considered a hallmark of cornea-type differentiation. In the current study, the biological features of @entity16915 -positive cells in @entity1 bulbar conjunctival epithelium were examined. METHODS: @entity1 conjunctival tissues were subjected to investigate the @entity16915 -positive cells in conjunctiva by immunostaining, in situ hybridization, Western blot analysis, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Gene expression profiling of these cells was performed with introduced amplified-fragment length polymorphism (iAFLP). To determine the presence of stem- or progenitor cells, immunostaining and colony-forming assays were performed. RESULTS: Western blot analysis, RT-PCR revealed that @entity16915 was expressed in conjunctival epithelium. Immunostaining analysis showed that @entity16915 -positive cells reside mainly in clusters in conjunctival epithelium. FACS analysis showed that 0.2% to 1.7% of conjunctival epithelial cells collected from the inferior bulbar conjunctiva were @entity16915 positive. iAFLP analysis revealed that the gene expression patterns of these cells were highly similar to that of corneal epithelial cells. @entity4206 and @entity10430 were expressed beneath the @entity16915 -positive cells. Some colony-forming cells expressed @entity16915 . CONCLUSIONS: The @entity16915 -positive cells appear to be ectopically residing, self-maintaining corneal epithelial cells in the conjunctival epithelium.

Clusters of corneal epithelial cells reside ectopically in XXXX conjunctival epithelium.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['human', 'Human'] @entity10430 :: ('9429', 'Gene') :: ['ABCG2'] @entity4206 :: ('8626', 'Gene') :: ['p63'] @entity16915 :: ('3859', 'Gene') :: ['keratin12', 'K12']
@entity1 :: (9606,Species) :: ['human']
