Scientists from Novosibirsk are developing a new treatment for corneal diseases that lead to blindness. This was reported by RIA News referring to one of the team’s researchers.
As Christina Krasner, an ophthalmologist at the Medical Research Center of Novosibirsk State University, says, corneal diseases often affect young people, and often there is not enough donor material for transplantation.
In this context, employees of the MNTK branch “Eye Microsurgery”, Academician SN Fedorov” and the Research Institute of Clinical and Experimental Lymphology (a branch of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the SB RAS) decided to investigate the possibility of developing a new therapy.
To do this, the scientists increased two populations of cells (keratocytes and fibroblasts) isolated from part of the cornea of a healthy eye. Based on them, cell suspensions were created, which were placed on the cornea of a cloudy animal eye. It turned out that after application of the suspension of both fibroblasts and keratocytes, the thickness and transparency of the cornea began to recover faster.
According to Krasner, the experiment is now coming to an end; researchers just need to identify the deep processes that occur between cells and intercellular substance. Scientists predict that the human eye will also respond positively to suspension application.
Before reported About a new development at University College London, where they have developed a drug effective in the treatment of microbial keratitis, a rare infectious disease of the cornea.
Earlier British scientists to create One way to solve the problem of donor eye shortage.