Cheek tissue used to restore eyesight
Doctors have used thin sheets of cheek tissue to restore vision in people
with damaged
corneas.
A team from Osaka University transplanted thin layers of cheek cells on to
the eyes
of four patients with a rare and painful eye condition reports BBC online.
The patients, whose vision had been cloudy, could see well afterwards, and
their
'new corneas' were still clear more than a year later. The Osaka team hope
their
work may also lead to other types of grow-your-own tissue transplants.
The cornea is the clear layer of cells on the surface of the eye. It can de
damaged
by trauma or by a range of diseases.
Doctors can take cells from a healthy eye and grow them in a dish to
produce a new
cornea, or they can transplant corneas from donors. But these techniques
may not
work when both eyes are too badly damaged by accident or disease.
The Osaka team worked with four patients who had Stevens-Johnson
syndrome, a painful
condition which causes cloudy corneas and dry eyes. Often the eye can
regenerate
corneal cells - but none of the four patients had this ability.
The researchers harvested 3mm (0.12 inch)-wide squares of mouth tissue
from inside
the cheeks and grew them into thin layers in the lab.
They used a special low-temperature technique to separate a very thin sheet
off each
batch and laid it on to the eyes of the patients. The cell layers stuck on to the
eye without stitching and developed into tissue that looked and acted like
healthy
corneas.
Writing in the journal, the researchers, led by Dr Kohji Nishida, said: "Corneal
transparency was restored and postoperative visual acuity improved
remarkably in
all four eyes. During a mean follow-up period of 14 months, all corneal
surfaces
remained transparent. There were no complications.
"Long-term follow-up and experience with a large series of patients are
needed to
assess further the benefits and risks of this method, which offers the potential
to treat severe ocular diseases that are resistant to standard approaches."
H
Just an email away......
Justin


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