Keratoconus is a progressive disease of the eye and one of the most common causes of vision loss worldwide. The cornea of the eye becomes thinner and bulges outwards as the disease progresses. Around 13 million people are affected worldwide, with around a million more every year.
Previous treatment methods require the use of human donor tissue. However, this is in short supply: there is one transplant for every 70 patients. The operation is also associated with a high risk of infection and long recovery times. A research team has now developed in collaboration with the Swedish company LinkoCore Life Sciences AB an artificial transplant that simplifies the treatment and makes it independent of donor tissue.
Pork skin collagen
About the results of a first successful clinical Study with 20 patients from Iran and India, the researchers report Mehrdad Rafat currently in the journal “Nature Biotechnology”. The basis for the artificial cornea, which has the shape of a contact lens, is biological collagen from pig skin. This is a by-product of the food industry and, according to the authors, is already used in the treatment of glaucoma (glaucoma). The finished transplant no longer contains any animal cells and can be stored for up to two years.
According to the study, the long shelf life is an important step towards enabling worldwide treatment. Inexpensive and sustainable methods are crucial, especially in low-income regions where access to the healthcare system is often limited.
Simplified method with shorter recovery time
So far, Rafat and his team have successfully implanted the synthetic transplant in 20 patients. They developed a surgical technique that is significantly less invasive than previous methods: only an incision of almost two millimeters is required to insert the cornea. The patient’s own tissue is preserved and not damaged.
Unlike operations with human donor tissue, no additional sutures are used, which means that follow-up treatment and convalescence take less time. “A less invasive method can be used in more hospitals and thereby help more people,” says Autor Neil Lies using the specially developed technology. So far, such operations have only been performed at a few university hospitals.
In addition, the newly developed transplant reduces the need to take immunosuppressants. With conventional methods, patients had to take the medication for several years. Thanks to the artificial cornea, special eye drops are only needed for eight weeks to prevent possible rejection.