Thesis abstract:

«p»The cornea is arranged in several layers. The epithelium is the most important layer of the cornea as it acts as a protective barrier to the eye. However, unlike simple epithelia, the corneal epithelium is stratified and has multiple layers. The thickness of this stratified epithelium is regulated by anatomical location, function, and circumstances; however, little is known about what regulates this process. Consequently, our main direction is building a mathematical and computational model formulated as a Voronoi cell-based model to address the following questions:«/p» «p»What makes the corneal epithelial layers become thicker when they are rubbed?How are the layers organised during wound healing?What kind of epithelial cell movement patterns do we expect? Can these patterns change in different layers?How do cell sizes change from the basal layer to superficial layers? How do the velocities of centripetal migration of cells fluctuate over all epithelial layers?«/p»