Slit lamp (ZEISS, Jena, Germany) examinations and in vivo photographs of corneas were performed on days 7 and 14 after alkali burn injury. Each group contained 6 eyes at each time point. The CNV area was quantified, as previously reported (15 (link)). On day 7, 0.5% fluorescein sodium salt was used to detect corneal epithelial defects. Each epithelial defect area was evaluated using ImageJ software (imagej.nih.gov/il/; National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA). The percentage of epithelial defect area referred to the area of epithelial defect of each eye as compared to the area of the entire cornea.