By: Mihika Reddy
Image by Global Data Health Care
Promising outcomes for corneal implants have been demonstrated in a recent study conducted by Linköping University (LiU) researchers. Nearly 12.7 million individuals worldwide suffer from corneal blindness, which encompasses alterations made to the cornea. The only known treatment in the past was a corneal transplant given after someone else had gone.
A collagen implant, however, composed of pig skin collagen protein, has been created by researchers. Twenty patients who were blind before the trial have proved that it restored their vision. Without having to rely on contributions from the loss of another person, this bioengineered implant offers the potential to heal people who are afflicted by the condition.
In order to create these alternative corneas, researchers used collagen molecules as the korean mainly consists of protein collagen. The molecules were purified and produced under specific conditions to make it available for human use. Pig skin was used for this study as it is a common byproduct in the food industry making it easy to access and economically beneficial.
Neil Lagali, professor at LiU said, "The results show that it is possible to develop a biomaterial that meets all the criteria for being used as human implants, which can be mass-produced and stored up to two years and thereby reach even more people with vision problems. This gets us around the problem of shortage of donated corneal tissue and access to other treatments for eye diseases.”
Furthermore, the innovation does not only present a solution to those suffering from corneal blindness, but it is also designed to be affordable and accessible. Safety has also been given top consideration; with this technique, a surgeon just has to make an incision and place the new cornea into the patient's current cornea rather than removing any of the patient's tissue.
In India and Iran, where there are many individuals with corneal blindness and little opportunities for a donor, this surgical technique was employed. Twenty participants in the trial who were on the verge of losing their sight had the implant and experienced no problems. Despite the need for more research, encouraging findings give hope to those suffering from the illness, especially those who can’t afford or are likely to receive a transplant.
References:
Mehrdad Rafat, Mahmoud Jabbarvand, Namrata Sharma, Maria Xeroudaki, Shideh Tabe, Raha Omrani, Muthukumar Thangavelu, Anthony Mukwaya, Per Fagerholm, Anton Lennikov, Farshad Askarizadeh, Neil Lagali. Bioengineered corneal tissue for minimally invasive vision restoration in advanced keratoconus in two clinical cohorts. Nature Biotechnology, 2022; DOI: 10.1038/s41587-022-01408-w
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