The cornea is the most outer structure of the eye. What makes the cornea unique is that it is avascular, transparent, and potentially one of the most innervated tissues in the human body. As a key component of vision, proper health measures are needed to ensure its functionality and survival. Continuous corneal trauma, as a result of accidental wounding or disease, can potentially lead to partial or total vision loss. It has been shown that diseases such as obesity and diabetes can induce a state of hypoxia and alter substrate stiffness. It was hypothesized that corneal cells under normoxic conditions will experience morphological changes in response to substrate stiffness and matrix proteins compared to corneal cells exposed to hypoxic conditions where cells will respond differently as a result of environment. Results showed that the morphology of corneal cells exposed to normoxic conditions were more influenced by substrate stiffness and that corneal cells exposed to hypoxic conditions displayed characteristic signs of cellular senescence.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/36602 |
| Date | 13 June 2019 |
| Creators | Onyejose, Anwuli Jennifer |
| Contributors | Trinkaus-Randall, Vickery E. |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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