Indigenously developed through government and charity funding, the product is all natural, contains no synthetic ingredients, has no animal residues and is safe for patient use, a statement said. published by three research institutes.
Sayan Basu and Vivek Singh, lead researchers from the LV Prasad Eye Institute, believe this could be a groundbreaking and groundbreaking innovation in the treatment of diseases such as corneal scarring (where the cornea becomes opaque) or Keratoconus (where the cornea gradually becomes thin over time).
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“This is a product made in India by an Indian team of clinical scientists and is the first 3-D printed human cornea that is physically and optically suitable for implantation. The science used to make this 3D printed cornea visible- They say rescuing military personnel at the site of an injury to seal the hole in the cornea and prevent infection from a war injury or in remote areas without tertiary eye care facilities.
The cornea is the clear front layer of the eye that helps focus light and supports clear vision. Corneal damage is the leading cause of blindness worldwide with more than 1.5 million new cases of corneal blindness reported annually. Corneal transplantation is the current standard of care for patients with severe disease and loss of vision.
Artificial cornea
There is a large gap between the demand and supply of donated corneal tissue worldwide, which is further complicated by the lack of an adequate eye bank network, especially in developing countries. Less than 5% of new cases annually are treated with a corneal transplant due to a lack of donor tissue.
With recent advances in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, researchers from LVPEI, IITH and CCMB used a depolarized corneal tissue matrix and stem cells derived from the human eye to develop developed a unique biomimetic hydrogel (patent pending) to be used as the substrate material for 3D printed Cornea.
According to the researchers, because the 3D printed cornea is composed of materials taken from human corneal tissue, it is biocompatible, natural, and free of animal residues. In addition, because the tissue used for this technology is obtained from donor corneas that do not meet the optical standards for clinical transplantation, this method is also of use only for corneas that are transplanted. donation that would otherwise be rejected.
Each donated cornea can assist in the preparation of three 3D printed corneas. In addition, corneas can be printed in a variety of diameters from 3 mm to 13 mm and can be customized based on patient specifications. This could provide a solution to the shortage of donor corneas for transplantation and has huge clinical implications.
However, the printed cornea will need to undergo clinical testing and further development before it can be used in patients, and this process could take several years.
It will be interesting to see how the bioprinted cornea will integrate and contribute to vision restoration by modulating the pathological microenvironment. Dr Bokara Kiran Kumar, Senior Scientist, CCMB, one of the project’s principal investigators, said polyatomic approaches will be used to understand these processes.
This study was funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and the translation work leading up to the clinical trials in patients will be funded through a grant from the Sree Padmavathi Venkateswara Foundation, Vijayawada .
Source: IANS
