The Japanese government’s health ministry has just approved a clinical study which uses pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to treat patients with corneal disease. The study will be carried out by researchers from Osaka University. It is only the sixth time that a study using IPSCs has been approved by the Japanese government.

The trial will involve four patients who suffer from corneal epithelial stem cell deficiency. Corneal epithelial stem cell deficiency is a progressive disease that causes the cornea to become thinner — resulting in loss of mild to severe visual distortion.

The participants in the study will receive a total of approximately 3 to 4 million corneal cells. This is about the same amount of corneal cells present in the eyes of people without corneal disease. The researchers will create thin layers of corneal tissue from IPSCs before transplanting them directly onto the cornea.

The researchers hope the corneal cells will integrate with the cornea and help it produce more healthy corneal cells, leading to an improvement in the patient’s eyesight. The first patient to receive a transplant will undergo the procedure in June.

Corneal epithelial stem cell deficiency occurs when cells that produce more corneal cells are lost due to an injury or illness of some kind. Because the eye cannot product enough corneal cells, the cornea becomes thinner and the patient’s eyesight worsens.

While there is currently no cure for this condition, some patients can receive a cornea transplant. Unfortunately, there is a limit on how many corneas are available for transplantation and cornea transplants are sometimes rejected by the immune system of the recipient.

The sheets of corneal cells that are being transplanted do not contain immune cells and the research team says this will eliminate the risk of rejection by the recipient. If this clinical trial is successful, the researchers will seek to obtain approval to manufacture and sell sheets of corneal cells within the next several years.

Induced pluripotent stem cells are extremely powerful cells that can transform themselves into any type of body tissue. They were invented by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, who received a Nobel Prize for his work.  IPSCs may be able to treat a wide range of conditions including heart disease, burn injuries, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal injuries. If this trials a success, it may lead to iPSCs being used to treat other kinds of eye injuries and diseases.

Source: Japan’s health ministry approves world’s first trials for using iPS cells to treat corneal disease