Trauma, infection and congenital diseases may disrupt the tissue structure and cellular homeostasis of the cornea, while causing impaired function of corneal stem cell defects, which in turn may even lead to corneal blindness caused by the inability of the tissue to heal properly. Corneal blindness is one of the major causes of blindness worldwide. Several stem cell-related techniques have been applied to reconstruct functional corneal tissue with impressive therapeutic results. This review focuses on corneal limbal stem cell deficiency and aims to present the current status and recent progress of research on stem cells from multiple sources in corneal reconstruction, as well as to describe specific markers of corneal stem cells.