Dr. Agarwal Hospitals’ Bangalore unit has installed a Specular Microscope to regenerate the ocular tissue using foetal stem cell to improve the corneal transparency.
The instrument can also assess the quality of endothelial cells of the cornea in a live state without causing any discomfort to the patient. It is also used to evaluate the pre and post cataract endothelial cell count, pre and post intra-ocular stem cell implantation endothelial cell count, endothelial cell count in dry eyes and corneal dystrophies.
“With the help of this machine, we have been able to increase the endothelial cell density with foetal tissue implantation into the eye,” stated Dr. Sunita Agarwal, managing director, Dr. Agarwal Hospitals.
So far, four patients with severe limbal stem cell deficiency have been treated. Two patients were treated with intra cameral injections and the other two with intra vitreal injections with stem cells. In all the cases, visual acuity increased by at least two lines in Snellen chart and corneal transparency improved, claimed Dr. Sunita Agarwal.
The umbilical cord blood stem cells replace dead corneal cells in the eye. But the cornea can become cloudy or be overrun by capillaries from the white of the eye, if those stem cells die. Attempts are being made to fabricate corneal epithelial graft techniques, but the technology is still evolving. Umbilical Cord Endothelial Cells from human Umbilical Cord vessels is considered to be a step ahead as it contained the active endothelial cells, she explained.
The existence of representative marker for corneal epithelial stem cells allows a much more detailed understanding of their role in tissue homeostasis.
From a clinical standpoint, it is clear that Autologous transplantation is out of question when stem cell deficiency is bilateral. Studies are being done to determine the suitability of stem cells for reconstruction of retinal and optic nerve, she added.