The Use of Bromodeoxyuridine Incorporation Assays to Assess Corneal Stem Cell Proliferation

Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation assays have long been used to detect DNA synthesis in vivo and in vitro. The key principle of this method is that BrdU incorporated as a thymidine analog into nuclear DNA represents a label that can be tracked using antibody probes. In this chapter, we describe BrdU incorporation into limbal stem cells. The colorimetric reaction produced by this assay can be detected by immunohistochemistry, and using appropriate controls, it can be used for determination of proliferating properties of restricted progenitor cells derived from the cornea.