Formation of a cornea from heat-treated skin

Summary

The authors' study concerns the mechanism of the effect produced by the eye on the skin transplants in experimental induction of the cornea. It was possible to demonstrate, with the aid of various morphological and physiological methods, that transformation of the skin into the cornea occurs under effect of photoreceptors of the retina Along with this, it was shown [9], and then confirmed in the present work, that irradiated skin is transformed into a new cornea much more rapidly than the intact one. But the main conclusion of the present work lies in the fact that not only the irradiated, but also the overheated (35–37°C) skin with paranecrotic changes in its cells, possesses an increased formative reactivity.

It is possible that under the effect of the mentioned factors there occur in the colloidal system of the young skin phenomena of depolymerization type. This being true, under the inducing action of photoreceptors in such skin there evidently takes place a new, more rapid aggregation, and possibly polymerization, characteristic of the cornea.