Originally, the layer of Bowman was termed Bowman’s membrane analogously to Descemet’s membrane at the inner side of the cornea. However, the layer of Bowman does not correspond to a basement membrane as is true for the membrane of Descemet (cf. Fig. 92). The layer of Bowman is the anteriormost part of the corneal stroma, although differently organised. It is 6 to 9 μm thick and formed by densely packed mainly type I collagen fibrils. The micrographs of a human cornea in panels A and B show segments of the basal cells of the corneal epithelium (cf. Fig. 118) and the associated basal lamina with the lamina rara close to the plasma membrane of the epithelial cells and the adjacent lamina densa labelled by asterisks in panel B. The lamina densa continues into the Bowman’s layer, which is on display in the middle part of the survey micrograph in panel A. The different organisation of the collagen fibrils in the Bowman’s layer in comparison with their organisation in the stroma shown in the lower part of panel A is evident.
Keywords
- Basement Membrane
- Basal Cell
- Basal Lamina
- Collagen Fibril
- Corneal Epithelium
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.