Researchers have identified a way to enhance regrowth of human corneal tissue to restore vision, using a molecule that acts as a marker for hard-to-find limbal stem cells. This work promise for burn patients, victims of chemical injury, and others with damaging eye diseases.
The research, published this week in the journal Nature,is also one of the first examples of constructing a tissue from an adult-derived human stem cell. Limbal stem cells reside in the eye’s basal limbal epithelium, or limbus, and help to maintain and regenerate corneal tissue.
Their loss due to injury or disease is one of the leading causes of blindness. In the past, tissue or cell transplants have been used to help the cornea regenerate, but it was unknown whether there were actual limbal stem cells in the grafts, or how many there might be, and the outcomes were not consistent.
In this study, researchers were able to use antibodies detecting the marker molecule, known as ABCB5, to zero in on the stem cells in tissue from deceased human donors and use it to regrow anatomically correct, fully functional human corneas in mice.
“Limbal stem cells are very rare, and successful transplants are dependent on these rare cells,” said Bruce Ksander of Mass. Eye and Ear, co-lead author on the study with postdoctoral fellow Paraskevi Kolovou. “This finding will now make it much easier to restore the corneal surface. It’s a very good example of basic research moving quickly to a translational application.”