This study shows that primary cell cultures can be established from corneas obtained from 8-week-old human embryos. Such corneas, even though they were obtained at an early stage of the embryonic development, are completely differentiated into three layers as in the adult cornea. Both corneal endothelial cells and stromal cells were found to attach and proliferate in vitro. Furthermore, it was possible to obtain pure uncontaminated cultures of stromal cells after five passages in vitro. It was also possible, using feeder cells as the substratum, to obtain pure endothelial cell cultures from embryonic corneas.