The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : New approach to corneal disorder

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 11, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

New approach to corneal disorder

Staff Reporter

Stem cells cultivated on a synthetic material for transplant

CHENNA: I: It is a new way of looking at eye disorders due to corneal damage.

Sankara Nethralaya has cultivated stem cells on a synthetic material. These could be transplanted on to the damaged eye to repair the diseased portion to recover vision.

"It is the first time a non-biological material has been used to grow corneal limbal stem cells," said Lingam Gopal of Sankara Nethralaya recently.

The use of these cells, he said, would help prevent contaminations as well as rejections that happen in the case of cells from biological material.

The cultivation of adult corneal limbal stem cells in Mebiol Gel was undertaken by the Vision Research Foundation of Nethralaya in association with the Chennai based Indo-Japan firm Nichi-In Biosciences and Japanese biotechnology firm Mebiol Inc.

Dr. H.N. Madhavan of the research team said it is possible to use the cells, cultivated from tissue sourced either from the patient or a donor, for people with stem cell deficiency.

"Treating limbal stem cell deficiency is challenging. Deficiency can even lead to blindness," explained G. Sitalakshmi, director of corneal services.

Sankara Nethralaya signed a MoU with Nichi-In Biosciences to complete the evaluation of the research using animal studies.

The team will figure out the cost factor when the it was ready for clinical application, added Dr. Madhavan.

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