A, what is artificial cornea: Artificial cornea, refers to the artificial corneal endothelium, is the use of artificial methods, in vitro cultivated for transplantation of the corneal endothelial cell layer. Tissue-engineered human corneal endothelium developed by the Corneal Tissue Engineering Laboratory of Ocean University of China
The endothelium of the tissue-engineered human cornea (referred to as artificial corneal endothelium) has successfully completed corneal transplantation experiments on rabbits and cats, the first of its kind in the international arena, suggesting that one of the important parts of the cornea? corneal endothelium can already be artificially? manufactured? This research result will effectively alleviate the reality of the shortage of medical corneas.
The history of artificial cornea research:
(1) In 1789, a French physician first proposed to implant a piece of glass into the cloudy cornea to restore vision
(2) In 1871, a piece of crystal glass was implanted into the patient's cornea, which led to the creation of the artificial cornea. The first time a piece of crystal glass was implanted into a patient's cornea in 1871, creating the history of artificial cornea implantation, the research and development of artificial cornea has a history of more than 200 years.
Artificial cornea is a product made of medical polymer material similar to human cornea, artificial cornea generally includes optical lens column and peripheral stent two parts.
Three, what is the need for artificial cornea transplantation:
In the past cornea problems, you can only wait for someone else to donate the cornea, China really can be cornea transplantation only only accounted for only 1/10 of the patients who are blind, the most common ophthalmological disease is now keratoconus, which can make the transparent cornea appear grayish white The most common eye disease now is keratoconus, which can cause grayish-white clouding of the transparent cornea, blocking light from entering the eye, causing blurred and diminished vision in mild cases and blindness in severe cases. According to WHO statistics, there are about 60 million people with corneal blindness worldwide, and 5 million people in China suffer from keratoconus.
Mature corneas can no longer undergo cell division, and corneal transplantation is the most effective treatment for keratoconus.
Four, the current situation of artificial cornea transplantation:
1. Due to the severe shortage of donor corneas, most patients in need of cornea transplants cannot undergo surgery right away and must wait in line at the hospital for corneas to be provided by the eye bank. The cornea donation business in China started late, and has not formed a large-scale, standardized, the vast majority of patients do not have the opportunity to undergo transplant surgery treatment.
2, the establishment of the NDRC National Engineering Laboratory has been on the agenda. But the technology is still facing medical registration, human clinical trials, marketing and other issues. Really rely on? Artificial corneal endothelium? Let corneal endothelial blind patients see the light again, it will take time.
3, after human clinical trials, the first batch of 300 cases of surgery. The human clinical trials will end in two years, and without incident, large-scale human application can be carried out in two to three years. The price of the artificial corneal endothelial donor is about 10,000 to 12,000 dollars.
Fifth, the success of artificial cornea transplantation in the impact of medical students:
Israeli scientists for the patient transplantation of artificial cornea is made of a synthetic, non-biodegradable porous material can also be implanted in the eye wall, replacing the scarred or deformed cornea. Once the artificial cornea is implanted, the substance works by stimulating the eye? cell proliferation? bonding with living tissue. The success of the surgery means that this technology will bring sight to thousands of blind patients.