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Submitted by Mardi/Canada Vision research funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/cornealdisease/#b5 is leading to progress in understanding and treating corneal disease. For example, scientists are learning how transplanting corneal cells from a patient's healthy eye to the diseased eye can treat certain conditions that previously caused blindness. Vision researchers continue to investigate ways to enhance corneal healing and eliminate the corneal scarring that can threaten sight. Also, understanding how genes produce and maintain a healthy cornea will help in treating corneal disease. Genetic studies in families afflicted with corneal dystrophies have yielded new insight into 13 different corneal dystrophies, including keratoconus. To identify factors that influence the severity and progression of keratoconus, the NEI is conducting a natural history study--called the Collaborative Longitudinal Evaluation of Keratoconus (CLEK) Study--that is following more than 1200 patients with the disease. Scientists are looking for answers to how rapidly their keratoconus will progress, how bad their vision will become, and whether they will need cornealsurgery to treat it. Results from the CLEK Study will enable eye care practitioners to better manage this complex disease. The NEI also supported the Herpetic Eye Disease Study (HEDS), a group of clinical trials that studied various treatments for severe ocular herpes. HEDS researchers reported that oral acyclovir reduced by 41 percent the chance that ocular herpes, a recurrent disease, would return. The study clearly showed that acyclovir therapy can benefit people with all forms of ocular herpes. Current HEDS research is examining the role of psychological stress and other factors as triggers of ocular herpes recurrences. In this country, corneal diseases and injuries are the leading cause of visits to eyecare clinicians. These are also some of the most painful ocular disorders. These facts alone underscore the need for laboratory and clinical research aimed at improving treatment for or preventing these diseases and injuries. Corneal problems result largely from the cornea's location as the outermost structure of the eye, but genetic disorders also contribute. Laboratory and clinical research performed during the last 5 years—largely funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI)—has made great progress in understanding and treating corneal disorders. Researchers now know many of the molecules involved in transparency and how these function. They know the origin of the cells that continuously replace those of the corneal epithelium. They also know some of the factors that may be involved in the cells' regulation, which has allowed for the amplification of these cells in culture. This knowledge has recently been applied to restoring the human corneal surface with cells grown from the patient's own eye. This has resulted in treatment for certain conditions that previously resulted in blindness. Procedures such as grafting of placental membrane or corneal limbal epithelial stem cells have aided epithelial healing in other difficult situations. Research on the cornea has also developed knowledge that can be applied to problems in other organ systems. For example, the cornea has long been known to be favorable for transplantation, and this procedure has become routine. Studies on the properties of the eye that make the cornea such a "privileged" immune site raise the possibility that this property can be conferred to other tissues, thus facilitating the transplantation of other organs. Studies on the molecular structure of collagen fibrils in the corneal stroma have not only provided basic information on the assembly of this tissue, they have also contributed insight into certain developmental defects of the skeletal system and blistering diseases of the skin. Moreover, since the cornea is constantly exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light and oxidative stress, it has provided information on ways that cells can protect themselves from this damage (such as the production of antioxidative enzymes and nuclear ferritin). These mechanisms could provide ways to protect other cells and organs from similar environmental insults Copyright © 2005 FuchsSupport Owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of this website (including the logo) may, for commerial, profit-making, non-profit organization, or other non-personal purposes, be reproduced in any form, or stored in a database or retrieval system, or transmitted or distributed in any form by any means, electronic, photocopy, or otherwise, without prior written permission of the author. | |
