SWEDEN: Scientists in Linkoping use laboratory-made biosynthetic corneas to repair damaged eye tissue

Record ID: 402092

  • Title: SWEDEN: Scientists in Linkoping use laboratory-made biosynthetic corneas to repair damaged eye tissue
  • Date: 27th August 2010
  • Summary: LINKOPING, SWEDEN (AUGUST 27, 2010) (REUTERS) SCIENTISTS IN LABORATORY (SOUNDBITE) (English) DR MAY GRIFFITH, PROFESSOR OF REGENERATIVE MEDICINE AT LINKOPING UNIVERSITY SAYING: "So far the none of the patients are showing any adverse effects. In fact we were very happy that our patients could be off the imuno-suppressive steroids very early so they were able to not have
  • Embargoed: 11th September 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sweden
  • Country: Sweden
  • Topics: Health,Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA5H107AH9GT561C4QCAU5AYBKQ
  • Story Text: Scientists in Canada and Sweden have used laboratory-made biosynthetic corneas to restore vision to patients in a small human trial, and shown for the first time that they can help to repair damaged eye tissue.
    The scientists, whose work was published this week in the Science Translational Medicine journal, said their findings offered hope for the millions of people who go blind each year due to a shortage in corneas for donation.
    "There is a world-wide shortage of corneas and there are estimated between five and ten million who need them so what we're trying to do is to develop biosynthetic replacements for human corneas so that these would be made available to the people who need them," said May Griffith, Professor of Regenerative Medicine at Linkoping University, who led the study.
    The cornea is a tiny piece of transparent, film-like tissue that covers the surface of the eyes. Made from parallel strands of the protein collagen, it refracts light to focus images on the retina.
    Although the fragile film is easily destroyed by trauma or infection, replacement human corneas can be used to restore vision, although this depends on a steady supply of donors.
    A team led by Griffith, Per Fagerholm, an ophthalmology professor and eye surgeon at the university and Neil Lagali, conducted the study by removing diseased tissue from the corneas of 10 patients and replacing them with biosynthetic implants designed to mimic a normal human cornea.
    For the process they used recombinant human collagen, a substance synthesised in the laboratory to mimic human tissue and supplied by the San Francisco biotech firm FibroGen Inc.
    The patients were monitored for two years after surgery. The researchers found that, eventually, the cells and nerves from nine out of the ten patients regrew completely and packed themselves into the implant, resulting in a kind of "regenerated" cornea that looked and functioned like normal, healthy eye tissue.
    The biosynthetic corneas also became sensitive to touch and the treated eyes began producing normal tears, the researchers said. Vision improved in six of the ten patients.
    The patients were also fitted with contact lenses, which is common after corneal transplants, their vision was comparable with that of patients who undergo regular human corneal tissue transplants.
    "This was a test designed primarily to look at the safety of implanting bio-materials into patients but we were very surprised and very happy with the results we got because the results showed that six out of ten patients could now see things about four times further away than they could before the operation and when we put hard contact lenses on all ten patients, the vision in all ten patients was improved," Griffith said.
    She said that so far none of the patients had suffered any side-effects.
    "So far the none of the patients are showing any adverse effects. In fact we were very happy that our patients could be off the imuno-suppressive steroids very early so they were able to not have to take steroids six and a half weeks after the surgery so that was a very good result," Griffith said.
    Loss of vision due to corneal disease or trauma affects around a million people a year, but lack of access to donor tissue limits the number of transplants, particularly in poorer countries.
    Griffith said Phase 2 and 3 of the studies still need to be carried out and the earliest this method could be made available at hospitals will be in at least five years.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register