Advances in mechanism and regulatory factors of corneal stromal repair

Corneal stromal is an important structure to maintain corneal transparency. The corneal stroma can be injured by trauma, infection and surgery. Therefore, corneal stromal wound starts repair with phenotype changes in stromal cell, extracellular matrix remodeling and immune cells migration. The corneal scar was the leading cause of blindness worldwide, which can be caused by corneal stromal fibrosis from increased myofibroblasts and deposited extracellular matrix after sever damage. At present, corneal transplantation is the main treatment for corneal scar, which has limited therapeutic effect because of corneal donor shortage, surgical requirements and the risk of postoperative immune rejection. Recently, great progress has been made in the study of control mechanism of corneal stromal wound healing with various molecules, cells and tissues. This paper reviews the repair mechanism of corneal stromal injury and the regulation mechanism of cause of corneal injury, corneal structure and molecule factors towards corneal stromal injury. It aims at providing new ideas for exploring the mechanism of corneal stromal repair and regeneration, which is supposed to help prevent corneal scar clinically.