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Cornea: anatomy, location and function

The cornea is the transparent front part of the outer coat of the eye and is the eye's major refractive surface. It transmits light and provides about two-thirds of the eye's focusing power.

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Structures

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Highlighted in the model: Cornea. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The model is an adult male.

Cornea at a glance

What it is
The cornea is the transparent front part of the outer coat of the eye and is the eye's major refractive surface.
Location
It forms the anterior one-sixth of the eyeball, continuous with the sclera at the limbus.
Function
It transmits light and provides about two-thirds of the eye's focusing power.
Body system
Eye & ear · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA58240 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • Avascular, receiving oxygen from tears and aqueous humour.
  • Densely innervated by CN V1 through the long and short ciliary nerves.
  • Classically has five layers: epithelium, Bowman layer, stroma, Descemet membrane and endothelium. A sixth (Dua) layer has been proposed but is debated.
  • Its refractive power is about 40–44 dioptres, because of the large change in refractive index between air and cornea.

Clinical relevance

Corneal scarring or opacity causes visual impairment, and corneal transplantation is one of the most common tissue transplants.

Structures next to the cornea

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Cornea (FMA58240). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §14.1 Sensory Perception. Rice University, 2022.
  3. Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.

Related anatomy

Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.