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Stem Cell For Eye Repair

A method of growing corneal stem cells on a contact lens (the carrier) and transfering them to the ocular surface of patients suffering corneal stem cells deficiency.

 

About the Inventors - Dr Nick Di Girolamo & Dr Stephanie Watson

Dr Nick Di Girolamo is a senior medical research scientist, he has worked at UNSW for 21 years and trained in the field of eye disease research with close to 60 papers published in peer reviewed medical journals.

 

Dr Stephanie Watson is an ophthalmic surgeon who specialises in diseases of the corneal. Stephanie is a senior lecturer at UNSW.

 

This study was actually initiated mid 2004 after an ophthalmic colleague of Nick's identified some white matter that was embedded on a therapeutic contact lens that was removed from a patient that had undergone a surgical procedure on their cornea. Contact lenses are usually placed over the eye after various surgical procedures to act as a bandage and minimise pain after surgery. The contact lens was given to Nick so that he could try to identify what the 'white matter' was.

 

After performing several simple as well as more complex techniques and analysis by conventional and electron microscopy, Nick identified that the white matter was indeed epithelial cells (i.e the very superficial cells of the eye). Nick's immediate thought was that if cells can transfer from the cornea to a contact lens then there would be no reason why the reverse couldn't happen i.e. cells could be grown on a contact lens then transferred back onto a patient's cornea, particularly in patients that require new cells to repair corneal defects.

 

A small tissue biopsy is harvested from the fellow healthy eye from a region known to contain stem cells. The biopsy is the size of a pinhead and is harvested using fine forceps and tiny scissors. A local anaesthetic is administered to the patient during the procedure.

 

This biopsy is then placed on a commonly used therapeutic Contact Lens and immersed in a pink solution containing the patient's own serum. The serum is the yellow component of the patient's blood. Serum was used because it is known to contain many nutrients that the stem cells require to grow.

 

Once the Contact Lens is covered in cells, (and this generally takes 10-days) it is ready to be placed on the patient's diseased eye. But before doing so, the patient's ocular surface is gently scraped with a scalpel blade by Dr Watson to remove any abnormal cells.

 

The Stem Cell laden Contact Lens is next placed onto the patient's diseased eye and left in place for a further 2 weeks to allow the Stem Cells to transfer from the Contact Lens to the patients cornea. The entire procedure may take 20-30 min and patients can go home within 2-3 hrs and be monitored at regular intervals over the first few months.

 

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