Politics.be - Lab made cornea offers new hope for restored vision

Citaat:

The "biosynthetic" implants were made from a synthetic version of human collagen designed to mimic the cornea as closely as possible. Fibrogen, the company that made the implants used yeast and human DNA sequences to create the custom corneas.

Diseased tissue was removed from the corneas of 10 patients and replaced with the implants. They were then followed for two years after surgery to monitor how well the implants were incorporated into the eye.

In six of the patients, vision improved from about 20/400 to 20/100 which means they could see objects four times further away than before the operation.

Sight was restored in all 10 patients who received the artificial implants. However, a number of the patients needed additional assistance from contact lenses.

They were all on the waiting list in Sweden to receive human donor grafts. Dr May Griffith, professor of regenerative medicine at Linkopings University in Sweden was one of the authors of the two year study. She told BBC News she was surprised by its success.

"Our goal was actually just to test the safety of these corneas in humans so the improvement in vision was a real bonus for us."