Houria Fangare
The cornea is the window of the eye and every window has to be clear to see through it. Imagine painting a window, can you still see through it? I don’t think so. This is how millions of people around the world who suffer from corneal blindness feel, they are on waiting lists for a corneal transplant, the conventional treatment of corneal blindness.
According to Japan times and a 2016 JAMA ophthalmology survey, an estimate of 12.7 million people worldwide is in need of a corneal transplant. It’s a known fact that corneal transplant is the treatment of corneal opacities, but are there any alternatives? Surprisingly, yes.
In Japan, a woman in her forties, who suffered from corneal epithelial stem cell deficiency, became the first person in the world to have her cornea repaired using reprogrammed stem cells. On July 25, 2019, a team led by Koji Nishida, transplanted an extremely thin sheet-like corneal tissue produced from an individual’s Induced Pluripotent Stem cells (IPS) cells.
The team believes one transplant should remain effective throughout a patient’s life, as the transplanted cells are expected to keep making more corneal cells and therefore contribute to sight recovery. Believe it or not, the team thinks that the sheets used are unlikely to be rejected; as they don’t contain immune cells, unlike the conventional corneal transplant operation.The researchers then continue to monitor the patient to observe the transplant effectiveness and safety. They are planning on conducting another transplant later in the following years.
Stem cells are truly an amazing discovery. Just like the stem of a tree; it can branch out becoming different types of cells such as skin, nerve, fat or corneal cells in this case. It is the ancestor of specialized cells in our bodies. So you wouldn’t be surprised when you hear that this operation is the third successful transplant using Pluripotent cells following the 2014’s retinal cells transplant & 2018’s nerve cells transplantation in the brain of a Parkinson’s patient.
Everyday new ways and methods are being invented to help treat previously untreatable diseases. And the Induced Pluripotent Stem cells that were identified by Shinya Yamanaka winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine are just an example of these new ways.
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