Contact lenses with stem cells restore the cornea

Elvira Koshkina, "Compulenta"Researchers from the University of New South Wales (Australia) have learned how to grow stem cells on contact lenses.

This method of therapy will improve the vision of people suffering from corneal damage. During the experiment, experts used stem cells taken from three patients and lenses that patients wear after eye surgery.

The cornea is a transparent shell covering the front of the eyeball. If damaged, it loses its transparency, which is fraught with loss of vision. In the most serious cases, such patients require corneal transplantation. Loss of transparency can be caused by genetic diseases, surgery, burns, infections or chemotherapy.

The experiment involved three Australian patients (two men and a woman) who had damaged the epithelium – the layer of cells covering the anterior surface of the cornea. Scientists took samples of limbal stem cells from their eyes and grew them on contact lenses. After that, the patients were ordered to wear these "modified" lenses for ten days. During this time, the stem cells moved from the lenses to the cornea and partially eliminated the damage on it. As a result, the eyesight of all the subjects improved significantly. The participants of the experiment were monitored from 8 to 13 months after the procedure, and none of them showed any deterioration.

Scientists say that they have developed a simple and inexpensive method of treatment that does not require a long stay of patients in the hospital. And although the study was small-scale and the possible risks of such a method of therapy have not yet been established, the technique is already called very promising.

Prepared based on the materials of the BBC.

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