UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

CORNEAL implants made from human collagen not only improves eyesight in most patients, but also regenerates cells and tissues in the cornea.

This is welcome news for millions of people around the globe suffer from corneal disease, which can lead to blindness.

Currently, the best way to correct corneal damage is through transplanting a human donor cornea. But there is a worldwide shortage of human corneas available for transplant. Scientists believe this new technology, published today in Science Translational Medicine, is the answer they have long searched for to put an end to the long waits for transplants.

The experiment with corneas made from collagen - proteins that are one of the main building blocks of human tissue - started in 2007 when Per Fagerholm, a professor of Opthalmology at Linkoping University in Linkoping, Sweden, implanted the biosynthetic cornea in 10 patients. Two-and-a-half years later, the results are promising.

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Professor Fagerholm reported that the vision improved in six of the 10 patients given the artificial corneas, with one patient’s vision returning to 20-20. The eyesight of all 10 improved with contact lenses.

Nerve regeneration was also unprecedented. In nine of the 10 patients, nerves regenerated in the eye better than even with corneal transplants. Biosynthetic corneas showed they could fully interact with eye tissue, leading to regeneration of both cells and nerves, integrating the artificial cornea with the rest of the eye.

Another encouraging sign was the fact that patients fared better post-operation after receiving the collagen-created corneas. Those patients stayed on drugs to ward off infection for only seven weeks. Patients who received human corneal transplants typically are on drugs, including steroid-based immunosuppressants, for six months to a year.