The Yin and Yang of the Opioid Growth Regulatory System: Focus on Diabetes—The Lorenz E. Zimmerman Tribute Lecture

Figure 8

Impact of chronic NTX on homeostatic corneal epithelium. Seven-day treatment with systemic NTX. Rate of DNA synthesis determined using BrdU. Arrows are BrdU-positive, DNA synthetic cells. DNA synthetic cells increased by 69–85% following NTX treatment. Epithelial thickness increased by 8 to 38%. There was increased packing density. Nevertheless, no toxicity or proliferative pathology was seen. Rather, NTX treatment accelerates normal homeostatic processes, but there is negligible apoptosis or necrosis. st: stroma; ep: epithelium. Bar = 12 µm (derived from [14]).