http://www.modernmedicine.com/modernmedicine/content/printContentPopup.jsp?id=675841

Researchers successful in restoring transparent, renewing cornea in burn-damaged eyes

Cultured limbal stem cells taken from an uninjured eye can be transplanted to a burn-damaged eye to regenerate new corneal epithelium, according to a study published online June 23 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Paolo Rama, M.D., of the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, and colleagues treated 112 patients with corneal damage, most with burn-dependent limbal stem-cell deficiency, with the transplantation of autologous limbal cells cultivated on fibrin.

The researchers observed permanent restoration of transparent, self-renewing corneal epithelium in 76.6 percent of cases, with failures apparent in the initial year. In up to 10 years of follow-up, restored eyes remained stable. Success generating normal epithelium was associated with the percentage of p63-bright holoclone-forming stem cells observed in culture. When these cells constituted more than 3 percent of the clonogenic cells, the transplantation was successful in 78 percent of the patients; when the percentage was 3 percent or less, transplantation was successful in only 11 percent of patients.

"Cultures of limbal stem cells represent a source of cells for transplantation in the treatment of destruction of the human cornea due to burns," the authors write.

June 23, 2010 (HealthDay News)