To determine the corneal endothelial cell density human donor corneas are usually placed in hypotonic balanced salt solution for unstained cell counting. Experimental studies often stain the corneal endothelium to highlight cells and cell borders and simplify counting. However, staining normally terminates the experiments. Up to date, there is no publication comparing endothelial cell counts before and after staining. This study compared the counting results of unstained (hypotonic balanced salt solution) and stained (trypan blue & alizarin red S) assessment of the corneal endothelial cell density. No evidence for significantly differing cell counts was found between unstained and stained analysis of the corneal endothelial cell density. Therefore, we consider unstained counting non-inferior to stained counting.
Keywords: Cell count; Cornea; Endothelial cell density; Staining.