Electron Microscopic Studies on the Human Corneal Epithelium: Dendritic Cells

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Abstract
Introduction Peculiar dendritic cells, stainable with silver and methylene blue, have been found frequently in the corneal epithelium, but their nature is still uncertain.1-7,9,11-15 These cells had been originally thought of as wandering leukocytes that migrated from the peripheral blood vessels (Ranvier, 1881).1 Egorow (1934)5 detected dendritic cells in the corneal epithelium homologous with Langerhans cells in the mammalian epidermis. These cells have been considered to be intimately related with nerve fibers and have been generally called Langerhans cells. Scharenberg (1955),6 using silver impregnation, found dendritic cells in the human corneal epithelium connecting with epithelial nerve fibers or stromal cells, and called them polymorph cellular elements; Pau and Conrads (1957)7 also made similar studies and insisted that Langerhans cells in the corneal epithelium were epithelial in nature and were associated with nerve fibers analogous to Schwann cells. Whitear (1957, 1960)8,9 made the first detailed