Project description:The cornea is a protective and refractive barrier in the eye crucial for vision. Understanding the human cornea in health, disease and cell-based treatments can be greatly advanced with cornea organoids developed in culture from induced pluripotent stem cells. While a limited number of studies have investigated the single-cell transcriptomic composition of the human cornea, its organoids have not been examined similarly. Here we elucidated the transcriptomic cell fate map of 4-month-old human cornea organoids and human donor corneas. The organoids harbor cell clusters that resemble cells of the corneal epithelium, stroma and endothelium with sub-populations that capture signatures of early developmental states. Unlike the adult cornea where the largest cell population is stromal, the organoids contain large proportions of epithelial and endothelial-like cells. These corneal organoids offer a three-dimensional model to study corneal diseases and integrated responses of different cell types.
