AN ARTIFICIAL polymer may help to restore sight to people with damaged
corneas. Patients are normally treated by grafting cornea tissue from a donor,
but the rate of rejection is high and surgeons have to remove some of the
healthy cornea around the damage for a graft to take.
But Monique Bruining and her colleagues at the University of Maastricht hope
their new polymer will avoid these problems. In a forthcoming issue of
Biomacromolecules the researchers describe a transparent polymer that
absorbs water and can fuse with cornea cells grown in the laboratory. The
polymer is made from butyl methacrylate and hexaethylene glycol
methacrylate.
Bruining plans to test the strength and durability of the polymer in a
rabbit鈥檚 eye. 鈥淚f it works well we hope it could permanently repair damaged
corneas,鈥� she says.
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