Objective: To study the neovascularization in regenerating and proliferating corneal cells following a standardudalkali injury in rabbit eye.udMethods: Three and six weeks after the creation of an alkali burn in the center of the right cornea of six albinoudrabbits, the animals were killed and histological sections from the cornea of both eyes were stained, photographedudand studied for a possible formation of a neovascularization. The photographs were examined using the Quantimetudimage analyzer (Leica) and statistical analysis of the data was performed.udResults: Sections of the injured cornea showed the formation of neovessels in the epithelial and superficialudstromal layers. The neovascularization is present after 3 weeks of the corneal injury. After 6 weeks from the cornealudalkali burn, neovessels are increased.udConclusions: There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that vascular abnormalities may play a crucial roleudin several ocular diseases. To improve our knowledge of the vascular involvement in these conditions, there is audneed for a non-invasive imaging modality capable of assessing microcirculation within ocular tissue beds both inudvitro and in vivo. This study shows that ultra-high sensitive optical microangiography, associated with otherudexperimental techniques, is an adequate technique to visualize the eye surface microcirculations and to quantifyudmicrovascular vessel density under both normal and physio-pathological conditions.
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