Regenerative Therapy for the Cornea

Article Name: Regenerative Therapy for the Cornea

What are the takeaway points from this article?

The epithelium of the cornea can recover from injury through cell division, but loss of limbal stem cells can lead to corneal blindness. Damage to the corneal endothelium, which does not have self-renewal capacity, can be treated with corneal transplantation. However, there are drawbacks to transplantation such as a shortage of donors, rejection, and limits to the survival of the graft. New approaches within regenerative medicine are discussed in this review and include corneal stromal stem cells, corneal limbal stem cells, embryonic stem cells, and pluripotent stem cells. Corneal sensory nerve regeneration and trophic factors for corneal regeneration are also novel regenerative therapies. Due to the unique variation in stem cell lines and mixed outcomes from stem cell therapies, there has been increased interest in modified stem-cell or stem-cell free therapies.

Reference: Ajay Kumar, Hongmin Yun, Martha L. Funderburgh, Yiqin Du. Regenerative therapy for the Cornea. Progress in Retinal and Eye Research. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.preteyeres.2021.101011. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1350946221000720

Summary by: Sarah Yeo