LIMBUS DERIVED STEM CELLS TO TREAT CORNEAL SCARS

Mehvish Bano and Nidhi Saxena*

ABSTRACT

Eyes are one of the most precious sensory organs. Eyes are the window of the soul but there are millions of people around the world who are suffering from diseases related to eye. Eyes have an outermost thin layer of tissue known as cornea. The cornea is responsible for 65 – 75 percent of eye’s total focusing power, it also protects the eye surface. A corneal dystrophy is a condition in which one or more parts of the cornea lose their normal clarity due to build up of materials that cloud cornea. One of the most common treatments of corneal dystrophy is corneal transplant. A cornea transplant is an operation to remove all or part of a damaged cornea and replace it with healthy donor tissue. Corneas are the most commonly transplanted tissue worldwide. More than 47,000 corneal transplants were being performed in U. S. in 2014. Treatment of corneal dystrophy with corneal transplant suffers from various complications in the patient including tissue rejection, inflammation, shortage of donors etc. A keratoprosthesis (KPro) is an artificial cornea derived from patients own stem cells. A KPro may be the only option available for people who had no success with corneal tissue implants or who have a high risk of tissue rejection. This paper reviews the importance of Limbus derived stem cells as an option for treatment of corneal dystrophy.

Keywords: corneal scars, Limbus, corneal dystrophy, mesenchymal stem cells.