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Meesmann corneal dystrophy is a rare hereditary autosomal dominant disease that is characterized as a type of corneal dystrophy and a keratin disease. MECD is characterized by the formation of microcysts in the outermost layer of the cornea, known as the anterior corneal epithelium. The anterior corneal epithelium also becomes fragile. This usually affects both eyes rather than a single eye and worsens over time. There are two phenotypes, Meesmann corneal dystrophy 1 and Meesmann corneal dystrophy 2 , which affect the genes KRT3 and KRT12, respectively. A heterozygous mutation in either of these genes will lead to a single phenotype. Many with Meesmann corneal dystrophy are asymptomatic or experience mild symptoms.
It is named after the German ophthalmologist Alois Meesmann. It is often considered as the "Meesmann-Wilke syndrome", after the joint contribution of Meesmann and Wilke in 1939. Research was later contributed by Stocker and Holt in 1954 through 1955 who found a variant of Meesmann corneal dystrophy called "Stocker-Holt Dystrophy".