Cornea in Biological News

Stem cell therapy makes cloudy corneas clear, according to Pitt researchers

... of donor tissue because the procedure alters the cornea in a way that makes it unsuitable for ... identified stem cells in a layer of the cornea called the stroma, and they recently showed that ... which plays a critical role in giving the cornea the correct structure to make it transparent. ...

The role of stem cells in renewing the cornea

... of the Journal Nature that shows how the cornea uses stem cells to repair itself. Using mouse ... demonstrate that everyday wear and tear on the cornea is repaired from stem cells residing in the ... migrate from the limbus, a region between the cornea and the conjunctiva, the white part of the eye. ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- May 14, 2008

... IMMEDIATE RELEASE New-generation artificial cornea could restore vision for millions worldwide ... Cochran point out that disease or injury to the cornea the clear tissue covering the front of the eye ... developed countries with transplants from donors, cornea transplants are unavailable in many parts of the ...

LSUHSC's Bazan awarded ARRA grant to preserve vision

... and extensive damage occurs when the equilibrium between chemical messengers (lipid mediators) that are released in response to tissue injury in the cornea is lost. Dr. Bazan's research will focus on several of these mediators platelet-activating factor (PAF) which appears to play a key role ...

Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, June 2009

... to the patient's unique pathology. The other tools are the Corneal NanoPunch, used to enhance the healing of abrasions and erosions, and the cornea Treatment Tool, useful for delivering drugs from the array of glass spikes on the tip of the tool to the exact disease sites. Patents are pending. ...

Ambati study published in PNAS

... journals such as Cell and in Nature, which termed it "stunning." But these side effects could themselves find useful application, for example, in cornea transplantation, where growth of new blood and lymph vessels is believed to be a major cause of graft failure. The new findings are published in ...

Potential new herpes therapy studied

... virus causes cold sores or fever blisters around the mouth, genital herpes, a deadly but rare type of encephalitis, and keratitis, a scarring of the cornea that leads to vision loss. HSV-2 is the more common cause of genital herpes. Existing herpes treatments work because the active ingredients target ...

Diabetes researcher gets $5M boost

... over a period of time would match the nerve degeneration found in arms and legs. "We want to see how well the degeneration of the nerves in the cornea matches the degeneration of nerves throughout the body, and if it matches it will mean that we can monitor diabetic neuropathy using a simple eye ...

Scientists identify the genes that cause blindness produced by corneal edema

... caused by corneal oedema originated by the alteration of the cell barrier of corneal endothelium. When the endothelial cell barrier is unharmed, the cornea remains dehydrated and transparent. An oedema is a swelling caused by the accumulation of liquid in the tissues of the human body, including ...

NJIT applauds students for studies on brain injury, glaucoma and more

... instrument that will someday enable glaucoma patients to monitor their eye pressure at home. The best current method involves touching the cornea with a sterile probe that applies a very small force. The measurement is challenging and requires the supervision of an ophthalmologist. ...

Multiple species of bacteria may cause trachoma: Implications for treatment

... hands and clothing; successive infections cause scarring of the inside of the eyelid. As the eyelashes of the infected eyes turn inward they scar the cornea - the transparent tissue covering the front of the eye - leading eventually to blindness. To investigate whether other species of Chlamydiceae also ...

New insights into how lasers cut flesh

... that in tissue containing significant amounts of NADH, ultraviolet lasers dont need as much power to cut effectively as people have thought. The cornea in the eye is an example of tissue that has very little NADH. As a result, it responds to an ultraviolet laser beam more like water than skin or ...

Artificial cornea offers better results for infants, some blind patients

... adults who are blind due to a cloudy or damaged cornea are seeing some remarkable results thanks to a ... vision of a group of people for whom traditional cornea transplants usually fail. The new work, supported ... as the Boston Keratoprosthesis, an artificial cornea used by just a few doctors in the world to treat ...

An artificial cornea is in sight, thanks to biomimetic hydrogels

... fabricate and characterize a bioengineered cornea based on the dual-network hydrogel. The result ... calls the pores engineered into his artificial cornea the "homes" he built for cells that need to ... Stanford's program to develop an artificial cornea is "broadly interdisciplinary," Frank says. ...

Intrinsic eye protein halts angiogenesis

... that unravels the mystery of how a healthy cornea remains clear and free of blood vessels, which is ... "The standard paradigm has been the cornea is avascular because it has lots of ... their own. "We want to know what it is in the cornea that produces so much of this protein which ...

Results with newer bladeless LASIK equivalent to standard microkeratome LASIK

... or astigmatism by reshaping the eye's cornea to alter the way the eye refracts light. LASIK ... LASIK. Backscatter is haziness in the cornea that is usually invisible to the naked eye and is ... office. Cell densities in all layers of the cornea also did not differ between the LASIK surgeries. ...

Scientists discover why cornea is transparent and free of blood vessels, allowing vision

... to stimulate the growth of blood vessels. The cornea has long been known to have the remarkable and ... since this phenomenon, present in the cornea normally, can be used therapeutically in other ... the Schepens Eye Research Institute, head of the cornea Service at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear ...

Scientists characterize proteome of human cornea

... Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journal. The cornea is the transparent, dome-shaped window that ... it is clear and seems to lack substance, the cornea is actually a highly organized group of cells and ... of incorrect curvature or irregular shape of the cornea and are the most common vision disorders in this ...

Artifical cornea lets woman blind 20 years see

... years in both my eyes," Phifer says. "A regular cornea wouldn't work because of the severity of damage ... that I want to read." While many people with cornea damage are eligible to become candidates for standard human cornea transplants, some cannot tolerate donor tissue. ...

Leading reason for corneal transplants comes into focus

... the population over 40. Late in life, the dystrophy causes swelling of the cornea and can severely affect vision, making it impossible to see well even with ... had severe early disease with men and women equally affected, and the cornea had smaller, finer bumps." Gottsch is looking to one day use various ...

Study shows how herpes infects cornea, evades immune cells

... Herpes virus has an unusual strategy for infecting cornea cells that may also explain how it evades the immune system, according to ... In about one quarter of cases, the virus penetrates the first layer of the cornea to infect an inner layer, the stroma, making the disease much more ...

Promising cell protein may play role in infection and dry eye

... suppressing gene Rb2/p130 in the nucleus of the epithelial cells in the cornea and conjunctiva. According to the researchers, this interaction with ... is a different expression of the protein between the epithelium of the cornea and conjunctiva cells," says Massaro-Giordano, an assistant professor of ...

Australian first to save sight

... for a corneal transplant when she was on holiday in South Australia. "If this system had been in place at that time I could have come back and the cornea would have still been there for me," Mrs O'Kane said. Mrs O'Kane, who eventually underwent a transplant in July 2005, said the improvement in her ...