Twenty individuals who were blind or on the brink of becoming blind had part or all of their sight returned owing to pig skin, a food industry waste.
Linköping University and LinkoCare Life Sciences AB researchers were able to restore the group’s eyesight using a unique corneal implant created from medical-grade collage from pig skin, a refined food industry waste used in FDA-approved medical devices for treating glaucoma. The implant was given to those who had defective corneas, the outermost and transparent layer of the eye, a problem that affects millions of people throughout the globe. According to a 2016 research, an estimated 12.7 million individuals are on waiting lists for cornea transplants, the only curative therapy for corneal blindness, with just one in 70 receiving the operation. The majority of persons in need of the operation, which involves a human donor, reside in low- and middle-income Asian, African, and Middle Eastern nations.
However, a new research published on Thursday in Nature Biotechnology may provide a new and less intrusive option.
The freshly bioengineered corneas were delivered to 14 persons who were already blind and six others who were on the brink of losing their sight in Iran and India. Scientists found positive findings almost immediately.
In addition to restricted donor availability, the standard procedure, which involves physicians surgically replacing a cornea and sewing it into place, risks transplant rejection, healing difficulties, infections, astigmatism, and the need for long-term assistance. The new procedure, on the other hand, enables surgeons to introduce the implant into the existing cornea, eliminating the need for sutures and allowing for a less invasive incision using either a sophisticated laser or by hand.
“The procedures were without difficulties; the tissue healed quickly; and an eight-week therapy with immunosuppressive eye drops was sufficient to avoid implant rejection,” according to the study’s press release. “Medications must be taken for many years after typical cornea transplants. The patients were monitored for two years, and no problems were discovered.”
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An sophisticated laser, such as the one shown, may be used to put the bioengineered implant into the cornea in a less invasive manner.
BALKHED, THOR
The patients’ new corneas were returned to normal, and their vision improved as much as it would have with a standard cornea transplant, if not more. By the conclusion of the trial, all 14 persons who had previously been blind had totally recovered their eyesight, with three achieving perfect 20/20 vision.
According to the research, “bioengineering implantable tissue is the key to solving the worldwide problem of corneal blindness.”
Along with the excellent surgery outcomes, the new corneas may be more available since they can be preserved for considerably longer than organ donations: two years vs two weeks. According to the research, since they are packed and sterile, they do not need pathogen testing if there are viral outbreaks.
Before the novel therapy can be legally authorized and utilized in health care, researchers must conduct a bigger clinical trial, and they also want to determine whether the technology they created can be applied for other eye ailments.
“We’ve taken great efforts to guarantee that our technology is broadly accessible and inexpensive to everybody, not just the rich,” Mehrdad Rafat, the researcher and entrepreneur behind the implants’ design and development, stated in a news statement. “That is why this technology can be employed everywhere in the globe.”