Quantification of collagen structural changes during chick corneal development.

As the most abundant structural mammalian protein, collagen has been implicated in the pathogenesis of numerous diseases such as osteogenesis imperfecta, and cancer. In the case of cornea, abnormal cornea development can lead to conditions such as agenesis, megalocornea, microcornea, and cornea plana. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms of collagen assembly during development may contribute to the prevention or treatment of corneal diseases. In this study, we applied fast Fourier transform second harmonic generation microscopy to quantify parameters of corneal structures during chick development. Our results show that both the rotational pitch and overall rotational angle of corneal stroma modulate between E9 and E19. In addition, we found that corneal structures between left and right corneas are highly correlated during development.