The world's first corneal transplant surgery with iPS cells is progressing smoothly.
It was revealed that a group such as Osaka University performed the world's first transplantation operation last month, trying to restore eyesight by transplanting eye tissue made from iPS cells into patients. So far, the patient's post-operative course is well.
This was revealed by a group such as Prof. Koji Nishida from Osaka University on 29th.
According to it, on the 25th of last month, the surgery for transplanting a sheet of corneal tissue made from iPS cells to the left eye of a female patient in their 40s suffering from a severe corneal disease called “corneal epithelial stem cell exhaustion” It was done as a research.
The patient has been discharged on the 23rd of this month because there has been no rejection so far, and his visual acuity has recovered to a level that does not interfere with daily life.
In clinical application of iPS cells to regenerative medicine, operations such as transplanting eye retina cells to patients have been performed so far, but corneal transplantation is the first in the world.
In the group, we have decided to confirm the safety performs the second person of the transplant surgery and the effectiveness of the prospect of the end of the year, we plan to perform the transplant against two further patients in the coming year.
Prof. Nishida said, “The visual acuity of the patient who was almost invisible has recovered to a level where he can read the letters. There are many unknown parts in the treatment of the cornea using iPS cells. assess the gender, we talk like to expand to the general treatment "to the prospect of five years.
The purpose and method of research
The purpose of this clinical study is to treat a serious corneal disease called “corneal epithelial stem cell exhaustion” using iPS cells.
In corneal epithelial stem cell exhaustion, tissue called the “corneal epithelium” on the surface of the cornea is injured by illness or injury and becomes white and turbid.
In this surgery, special iPS cells, which were provided by the iPS Cell Research Institute of Kyoto University and hardly cause rejection even if transplanted to others, were used to produce cells that were the basis of the corneal epithelium and cultured in sheet form. Things are being used.
The sheet is approximately 3 centimeters in diameter and 0.05 millimeters thick and contains millions of cells.
The aim is to restore vision by removing the cloudy part of the patient's cornea and transplanting a sheet instead.
Transplant surgery is considered the most effective treatment for the treatment of corneal diseases, but there are not many donors in Japan, and transplantation is not possible immediately, and there are many cases where the disease recurs due to problems of rejection. However, at present, it is expected to overcome these issues by developing new treatments using iPS cells.