British researchers may have made a breakthrough in the search for effective stem cell therapies to treat eye disease, it has been announced.
The Sheffield University researchers say they have developed a new technique, which would enable the stem cells to be grafted on to the eye.
They have designed a way to generate membranes in a disc of biodegradeable material.
The stem cells would be loaded into the membrane and kept in place as they proliferated and repaired the cornea.
Existing techniques use donated human membranes – but these have had limited success as the stem cells cease to regenerate.
The technique could also be used in addition to donated corneas.
The Sheffield researchers say their discs will create pockets of stem cells, which should survive and generate daughter cells.
They plan to test it at the LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India.
Researcher Professor Sheila MacNeil said: “Laboratory tests have shown that the membranes will support cell growth, so the next stage is to trial this in patients in India.
“One advantage of our design is that we have made the disc from materials already in use as biodegradable sutures in the eye so we know they won’t cause a problem in the body.
"This means that, subject to the necessary safety studies and approval from Indian Regulatory Authorities, we should be able to move to early stage clinical trials fairly quickly."
Fellow researcher Dr Frederick Claeyssens said: "The current treatments for corneal blindness use donor tissue to deliver the cultured cells which means that you need a tissue bank. But not everyone has access to banked tissues and it is impossible to completely eliminate all risks of disease transmission with living human tissue.
"By using a synthetic material, it will eliminate some of the risk to patients and be readily available for all surgeons."
Combined microfabrication and electrospinning to produce 3D architectures for corneal repair Acta Biomaterialia doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2012.10.039
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