Modern science has enabled many people to regain lost limbs, senses, or a new lease on life through technologically advanced prostheses, biomedical parts, or devices that take the place of organs within the body. A new research study from Canadian and Swedish scientists indicates that biosynthetic corneas can assist rejuvenation and the body’s ability to repair damaged eye tissue resulting in much-improved vision in test subjects. Findings from the earliest phase of clinical trials will be published in Science Translational Medicine.
Ten patients went under the knife to receive a biosynthetic corneas in one eye to help alleviate some of the effects of advanced keratoconus, or corneal scarring. Biosynthetic corneas are made from recombinant human collagen. Over two years later, researchers found that cells and nerves from the patients’ original corneas had grown into the biosynthetic cornea and had developed into a nearly perfect cornea with healthy tissue. Study subjects didn’t experience any rejection or need immune suppression medications that are common with other types of transplants. The biosynthetic implants also become sensitive to stimuli and began to produce moisture to keep the eye oxygen levels at healthy levels. Vision improved in 60 percent of subjects and scientists found that after placing contacts, subjects saw the same results seen in other corneal transplants occurring with human donor tissue.
The cornea is a thin, see-through layer of cells and collagen that works like an opening into the eye. Corneas must be completely clear and see-through to allow light in; corneas also help eyes to focus. The most common cause of blindness all over the world is diseases that cause corneas to become clouded or distorted. Around the year 2000, Dr. May Griffith, Ottowa Hospital Research Institute, started creating biosynthetic corneas in Canada using lab-created collagen molded into the shape of a cornea. After extensive research, the first implantation occurred with the help of a Swedish eye surgeon, Dr. Per Fagerholm.