Artificial Corneas Developed by Growing Cells in a Dish

Highlights:

Cells are successfully grown in a dish to develop cornea.
These cells produced large amounts of aligned collagen, the natural fibers that make up the human cornea.
Cells grown this way achieve the precise alignment that gives the human cornea its strength and transparency.

Growing better corneas in a dish
By controlling the behavior of cells in a dish, scientists have developed a new method to grow curved human corneas improving the quality and transparency.

Research has revealed that corneal cells isolated from human donors and grown on curved surfaces arrange themselves in a very regular lattice-like organization.

Eye Infections | Ocular Infections - Causes Symptoms Diagnosis Treatment
Eye infection is a common problem that often causes pain and discomfort to the eyes. Common symptoms of eye infection include pain, redness of eye or eyelids, eye discharge.

‘Cells grown in a dish to develop cornea showed an alignment of cells and fibers that allowed light to be better focused and made the cornea more transparent.’

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Cells grown this way achieve the precise alignment that gives the human cornea its strength and transparency. This new technique may revolutionize how artificial tissues are traditionally grown in laboratories around the world.

Lead researcher Che Connon, Professor of Tissue Engineering at Newcastle University explained: "We discovered that the cells grown on a dome-shaped surface behaved differently than those on flat one, crawling over the dome in a lattice-like structure - similar to a pie crust.

"These cells then produced large amounts of aligned collagen, the natural fibers that make up the human cornea. This is also the arrangement normally found in the human eye, and there were no easy ways to recreate it in a dish...until now!

Eye Redness
Redness of the eye occurs due to the dilation of the blood vessels of the eye. It can occur due to excessive straining or due to inflammation.

"Our tests showed that the alignment of cells and fibers allowed light to be better focused and made the cornea more transparent.

"This has never been seen before and has an important impact on how we think and develop new artificial tissues for human transplantation."

Eye Pain - Symptom Evaluation
Eye pain usually follows trauma, eye infection or inflammation of the eye and the surrounding structures. The cause of eye pain can be diagnosed based on the type of pain and associated symptoms.

Cornea transplants
A cornea transplant involves an operation to remove all or part of a damaged cornea, the clear outer layer at the front of the eyeball, and replace it with healthy donor tissue. It can be performed to improve sight, relieve pain, and treat severe infection or damage such as after an acid attack.

One of the most common reasons for a cornea transplant is a condition called keratoconus, which causes the cornea to change shape. Currently, there is a shortage of donated corneas in the UK, Europe, and the USA. This shortage has worsened in recent years, as corneas cannot be used from anyone who has had laser eye surgery.

Dry Eye - Symptom Evaluation
Dry eye may be due to a decrease in tear production, alteration of the tear consistency, or faster evaporation of the tears.

This breakthrough could provide a solution to the shortage of donated human corneal tissues and a practical alternative to the use of artificial plastic corneas which can be rejected by the body.

First author Dr Ricardo Martins Gouveia said: "This study suggests that we will be able to produce corneas that are more similar in shape and form to the natural eye, and likely to be better for transplantation compared with other artificial substitutes. We intend to carry out additional research and we think our team will be able to test these in humans within two years."

References:

Curve-eye-ture: how to grow artificial corneas

(http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/news/2017/10/curveeyeture/)