Donor tissue might no longer be necessary for corneal disease patients following the world’s first successful transplant created from induced pulripotent (iPS) cells. According to the team behind the project, led by Dr Koji Nishida from Osaka University, the procedure has the potential to dramatically reduce the time patients are currently forced to wait for a donor.
It is also believed it could decrease the likelihood of tissue rejection, since immune cells are not included in the tissue implant.
The first person to undergo the procedure was a woman in her 40s suffering from corneal epithelial st cell deficiency. After receiving treatment on 25 July 2019, she was discharged from hospital on 23 August 2019 with improved vision and no problems detected.
“We have only conducted the first operation and we are continuing to monitor the patient carefully,” Nishida said.
The corneal tissue used was grown from another individual’s iPS cells. These cells are expected to continue growing following the transplant and subsequently assisting the recovery progress. It is also anticipated that one transplant should rain effective for a patient’s entire life.
The team hopes the procedure could become widespread in the next five years.
Since their discovery iPS cells have promised to revolutionise eye treatment, as well as healthcare more broadly.
In 2012 Dr Shinya Yamanaka and Sir John Gurdon were awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work identifying iPS cells, which are capable of growing into any type of body tissue.
In 2014 the Rinken Institute undertook the first clinical study using iPS, transplanting retina cells into a woman with age-related macular degeneration. Earlier this year, researchers also reported positive results from a five-patient trial of donor-induced iPS cells.
