A reformative therapy which employs stem cells obtained from a person’s own eyes could offer another chance for several unsighted people to see again.
Study scientists from Italy have cited that the stem cell treatment led to successfully transplanting cornea among 3/4ths of blind patients in a single or both the eyes damaged due to chemical-induced or heat/fire burns.
Study investigator, Graziella Pellegrini, PhD along with associates conducted a study involving 112 corneal damage cases who underwent stem cell treatment in-between 1998-2006.
Pellegrini from the Univ. of Moderna’s Center for Regenerative Medicine stated that partial vision restoration was possible among individuals with no significant harm to other areas of the affected eye. She also mentioned that an average 3 year follow-up of the study entrants were done that even lasted for ten years and outcomes were observed to last for several years.
Graziella Pellegrini and associates have conducted 250 corneal transplantations in the past ten years employing stem cell treatment, however it continues to be investigative and is not being performed in the United States.
The study results have appeared in the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’.
Corneal Regeneration through Stem Cell Treatment
The corneal regeneration method entailed extraction of unharmed stem cells taken from the area in-between the coloured and whitish portion of the eye, the limbus.
Pellegrini stated that the procedure could be performed despite just a miniscule area of the limbus remaining unharmed.
Stem cells extracted from the limbus tissue via the biopsy procedure showed growth and formed normal, healthful corneal tissue in merely around 2 weeks time. The healthful tissue grafting was then done onto the affected eye.
The method shows success with the harmed, obscure cornea becoming clear as before and normalcy restored to the damaged eye.
By and large, seventy-seven percent of the study entrants meet with success following the initial and second grafting procedure whereas the method was partially successful in thirteen and ten percent of the cases, correspondingly.
Individuals with damaged cornea due to chemical or heat/fire induced burns mostly experience signs and symptoms comprising of light sensitiveness, scratching and pains. Such symptoms subsided or were lesser acute among patients with successful treatment outcomes.
After favourable outcomes of transplantation, nearly half of the patients underwent additional surgical procedures for improving optical sharpness and majority of them exhibited at least some extent of eyesight enhancement. One of the study entrants was found to achieve normal eyesight with the stem cell grafting procedure by itself.
