西田幸二教授
日本

Cornea transplantation is a standard procedure for treating irreversible corneal opacification due to various diseases. Penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) has long been the standard procedure, but it has serious several shortcomings such as immunologic rejection and uncontrollable postoperative refractive error. Recent progress of molecular and cell biology and introduction of innovative engineering technology led to conceptual change in cornea transplantation; change from replacement of a wide area including “diseased area” to replacing only “diseased area”. The innovative changes have yielded the idea of “lamellar surgery”, which has been recently highlighted. Corneal epithelial transplantation such as keratoepithelioplasty and limbal transplantation is the initial lamellar surgery, and deep lamellar keratoplasty and endothelial lamellar keratoplasty are now in clinical practice. Furthermore, in the field of cornea, one of the recent biggest topics is translational research, which is one bridging from bench to bedside. Indeed, regenerative medicine for corneal epithelium, transplantation of cultivated corneal epithelial cells expanded ex vivo from limbal stem cells has been developed and has already entered the clinical realm. But this method is not possible in many cases where bilateral disease produces total corneal stem cell deficiency in both eyes. We have developed a novel method using tissue-engineered epithelial cell sheets comprising autologous oral mucosal epithelium. The recent development of corneal surgery allow for functional-anatomical corneal reconstruction with no risk of immunologic rejection and better refractive results.

    声明:本站独家报道，转载须标明来源“中华眼科在线”