Unfortunately, despite more than 1 0 million people having corneal blindness globally, only 100,000 corneal transplants are performed yearly, primarily because of a shortage of donor tissues. New transplantation techniques have also lowered rejection rates.Ĭorneal blindness is a condition where other parts of the eye function properly, except for the cornea. The main reason behind these success rates is because the cornea has few tissues, minimizing the risk of rejection. Donor corneas are stored freshly in eye banks regulated by FDA.Ĭorneal surgeries have success rates of more than 95%. The donor cornea is collected from individuals who have willingly donated their eyes to benefit others. What Is a Corneal Transplant?Ī corneal transplant involves replacing the clouded cornea with a clear donor cornea. Whole-eye transplants (WET) are both experimental and controversial, but medical researchers are working on this technology. Instead, there are parts of the eye that can safely be transplanted to a different person, and most eye transplants are actually corneal transplants. With over 37 million people around the world suffering irreversible vision loss, being able to transplant an entire eye to a new person seems like a great solution.Īlthough eye transplants are performed, this procedure does not involve the entire eye. There is still considerable work to be done, but our findings could make stem cell transplants a feasible and realistic option for treating visual impairment and restoring eyesight," concludes Pia Cosma.Does an Eye Transplant Replace the Whole Eye? have already given regulatory approval for the commercial use of AAV-based therapies in patients. "AAV is really gaining popularity as the ideal therapeutic vector, and Europe and the U.S. In this study the mesenchymal stem cells were modified using lentiviruses, but the authors believe that using other methods such as the adeno-associated virus vector (AAV) can express the chemokine receptors in the transplanted cells. Mesenchymal stem cells can also be easily grown outside an organism, providing abundant starting material for transplantation compared to other cell sources such as hematopoietic stem cells. The researchers used mesenchymal stem cells, which are found in bone marrow and can differentiate into lots of types of cells, including retinal cells that respond to light. The stem cells can also generate new retinal cells, replacing lost or damaged ones. Stem cells can be transplanted into the eye, releasing therapeutic molecules with neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties that promote the survival, proliferation and self-repair of retinal cells. Stem cell therapies have been touted as one way of treating degenerative retinal conditions. With a growing and aging population, the number of people affected by retinal damage is estimated to increase dramatically over the next few decades. Retinal damage, which is currently incurable, inevitably leads to visual disabilities and in most cases blindness. Here, we have found a way to enhance this process using stem cells commonly found in the bone marrow, but in principle can be used with any transplanted cells." "After the cells are transplanted they need to reach the retina and integrate through its layers. "One of the main hurdles in using stem cells to treat damaged eyesight is low cell migration and integration in the retina," says Pia Cosma, ICREA Research Professor and Group Leader at the CRG and senior author of the study. When these modified stem cells were transplanted back into the models, they displayed a significantly higher rate of migration to degenerating retinal tissue, rescuing them from death and preserving their function. They then genetically engineered the stem cells with an overabundance of Ccr5 and Cxcr6 cell receptors. Martina Pesaresi, Ph.D., together with a group led by Pia Cosma at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), identified two cell signals-known as Ccr5 and Cxcr6-using different models of retinal degeneration in humans and mice.
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