Successfully cultured corneal initially from stem cells

November 20, Assoc. Dr. Nguyen Thi Binh - Deputy Head of Tissue - Embryology Department, Hanoi Medical University said the department has successfully cultivated rabbit corneal epithelium. This topic belongs to the topic of State-level branch " Stem cell culture " in the fields of bone marrow, pancreas, embryo, cornea .

The project started to be implemented from January 1, 2007 with a budget of about VND 500 million. The study was conducted in three years and 5 patients will be treated. Since then, the department has raised 5 to 6 waves with dozens of rabbit corneal epithelial samples. However, there have been two attempts to raise cells at the edge of the cornea on humans without success.

The Department has conducted raising in 2 ways: the first way is by the piece of the cornea margin, the second way to raise the hanging fluid (scraping the cells at the edge then beating into the cell suspension). The way of raising hanging fluids has not been successful, but the way to feed the edge of the cornea has initially been successful. The cultured corneal epithelium meets the requirement of flat epithelial plates consisting of 4 to 5 rows of cells.

Cultivation of cornea from stem cells in the laboratory of Tissue - Embryology, Hanoi Medical University (Photo: Ng. Huyen)

Currently, the new department successfully cultivates in the laboratory, not re-implanted in the rabbit's eye.

Cell culture is required to get the right cells from the cornea edge within 30-60 minutes to cultivate. The cornea is the inner area of ​​the eye and the alternate corneal source is rare to replace the damaged cornea.

The corneal epithelium produced by the subject cannot completely replace the cornea but is only used temporarily for a period of time depending on the condition of the patient.

The time of corneal epithelial culture is about 14 days . Initially, the corneal cells grow only one layer of cells and then experts have created a layer of 4 - 5 rows of cells. Stratification techniques are very complex and require the plaque to be flat.

In order to feed corneal cells, experts had to create amniotic membranes to be used as a culture for epithelial cells. To implement this topic, the department needs 300 placental membranes and more than 200 rabbit corneal epitheliums. It is expected that 100 rabbits will be needed for research.

Prior to the project, the department contacted the Corneal Center - Ichikawa Hospital, Japan, to send doctors to study corn culture techniques.

There is now another method of epithelial corneal epithelial culture which is more convenient to the oral mucosa than the fringe . After successfully cultivating fringe cells, the subject will feed the cells of the oral mucosa. However, with the above funding sources according to Assoc. Dr. Binh "Only enough to study the topic and buy consumable chemicals, laboratories and equipment are still inadequate and funded by previous projects".

According to the Ministry of Health, Vietnam currently has about 300,000 blind people due to corneal disease, of which 100,000 people are blind both eyes. These people can only look back if they received corneal transplants and corneal sources for transplanting patients are very limited.

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