杏吧原创

People with damaged corneas have had their sight restored by implants made of collagen 鈥� which eventually anchor themselves into the recipient鈥檚 eye.

Corneal damage, which results in seriously blurred sight, is currently treated either by implanting corneas from a human donor 鈥� which are in short supply 鈥� or an unsightly prosthesis, which looks like a pinhole camera.

Now at Link枚ping University in Sweden and colleagues have developed a cornea from collagen moulded to the shape and size of a natural human cornea. 鈥淚t looks like a contact lens,鈥� says Griffith. The difference is that this 鈥渂iosynthetic鈥� cornea encourages the person鈥檚 own cells to grow into its matrix, since it is made out of a similar substance to a natural one.

Griffith鈥檚 team inserted their biosynthetic corneas into the eyes of 10 people with corneal damage. Nylon sutures across the cornea held it in place, and the recipients were put on immunosuppressant drugs for six weeks to prevent rejection.

Nerves regrow

After two years, the cornea in all the recipients had become filled with the patients鈥� own cells, anchoring it to the eye. Nerves also grew across all of the corneas, which is important for cell survival and to maintain the blink response.

Six of the people now have their vision restored. The other four still have a visual 鈥渉aze鈥� which Griffith thinks is due to scarring from the sutures, which were placed across the middle of the cornea.

鈥淚 think Griffith鈥檚 work has the potential to revolutionise the field of cornea transplantation,鈥� says , professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University in California. 鈥淚t is possible [we will] see widespread use of this type of engineered cornea in the next five years.鈥�