Giving Sight to the Blind…
Researchers at the University of New South Wales have restored vision in patients suffering corneal damage with a ground-breaking technique using contact lenses cultured with the patient’s own stem cells.
Stem cells from the cornea (the thin, transparent barrier at the front of the eye) stick to contact lenses.
Researchers obtained stem cells from the healthy eyes of patients who were blind in one eye. The healthy stem cells were then cultured in extended wear contact lenses for ten days. The surfaces of the patients’ corneas were cleaned and the contact lenses inserted. Within 10 to 14 days the stem cells began to re-colonize and repair the cornea.
The procedure also works in patients who have had both eyes damaged. “One of our patients had Aniridia, a congenital condition affecting both eyes,” said lead author of the study, UNSW’s Dr Nick Di Girolamo. “In that case, instead of taking the stem cells from the other cornea, we took them from another part of the eye altogether – the conjunctiva – which also harbors stem cells.”
Patients that were only able to count fingers at a close distance in front of their eye are now able to read letters on a standard visual chart. The research team isn’t getting over excited, still remaining unsure as to whether the correction will remain stable, but the fact that the three test patients have been enjoying restored sight for the last 18 months is definitely encouraging. The simplicity and low cost of the technique also means that it could be carried out in poorer countries.
“The procedure is totally simple and cheap,” said Dr Di Girolamo. “Unlike other techniques, it requires no foreign human or animal products, only the patient’s own serum, and is completely non-invasive. There’s no suturing, there is no major operation: all that’s involved is harvesting a minute amount – less than a millimeter – of tissue from the ocular surface.”
The World Health Organization estimates that corneal disease could be responsible for 1.5 million people losing sight in one of their eyes every year.
Although at the moment the treatment can only help people with damage to the edge of the cornea, the researchers say it offers hope to people with a range of blinding eye conditions and could have applications in other organs
A paper detailing the breakthrough appears in the journal Transplantation.
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