Protective Effects of Trehalose on the Corneal Epithelial Cells

Table 1

Morphometric parameters of the corneal epithelium in trehalose-untreated eyes (TUE) and trehalose-treated eyes (TTE).

	Corneal epithelium		Desmosomes (number/10 𝜇m)					Hemidesmosomes; (number/10 𝜇m)
	Number of layers	Thickness (𝜇m)	Between superficial cells	Between wing cells	Between basal cells			Basal cells
					Clear/clear	Clear/dark	Dark/dark	Clear cells	Dark cells
TUE	6.7 ± 0.5	55.4 ± 3.5	20.1 ± 2	26.5 ± 2.2	9.2 ± 1.1^†	5.7 ± 1^†	4.2 ± 1^†	21.9 ± 2.9	18.1 ± 1.5^‡
TTE	6.8 ± 0.7	57.7 ± 4.1*	27.1 ± 3.1*	24.4 ± 5.1	9.4 ± 1.6^††	6.3 ± 0.8^≠	5.7 ± 1*	24 ± 2.1*	20.9 ± 2.4^*‡

^∗𝑃<0.0001 versus TUE.
^†𝑃<0.0001 versus the other cell junctions within the TUE group.
^††𝑃<0.0001 versus the other cell junctions in TTE group.
^≠𝑃=0.04 versus dark/dark cell junctions in TTE group.
^‡𝑃<0.0001 versus clear cells of the same group.