Chemical injury and pterygia may damage the limbus, the zone between the cornea and the bulbar conjunctiva, and cause limbal stem cell (LSC) deficiency. They represent major treatable causes of vision loss worldwide. A shortage of corneal donor tissue prevents many patients from regaining vision, necessitating new treatment strategies to circumvent this limitation. Transplantation of stem cells represents an appealing therapeutic strategy in regenerative medicine, and the use of endogenous stem cells provides a possible solution to the problem of immune rejection.