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Our Bureau

Chennai , Aug 5

VISION Research Foundation, the research wing of Sankara Nethralaya, Nichi-in Biosciences, an Indo-Japan joint venture, and Mebiol Inc, a Japanese biotechnology firm, will research the use of a synthetic medium developed by Mebiol to culture specific cells from the eye to treat various eye-related diseases.

Initial studies by the foundation have shown that the synthetic medium, called Mebiol Gel, is ideal for use in culturing various types of cells.

According to Dr H.N. Madhavan, Director of Research, Sankara Nethralaya, the collaborative study will explore use of Mebiol Gel as a medium to culture corneal limbal stem cells for transplanting them into a defective eye to restore vision.

Under an agreement signed today, this routine will first be experimented on animals.

This could take about a year and if found successful, would be carried forward in humans.

The significance is that this is being tried for the first time using a synthetic medium, Mebiol Gel, for culturing the cells.

This offers significant advantages over the conventional system of using biological materials such as human amniotic membranes, which carry a range of risks including infection, he said.

In the normal eye, the corneal limbal stem cells multiply and repair any damage to the cornea. But when the infection or damage is severe, the eye loses this ability. This could happen due to persistent corneal ulcers or chemical or physical damage to the eye. Over 3,000 people are affected by such events every year in India.

These people would have to undergo a full-thickness corneal transplant, available only to one in 10 because of the shortage of cornea from cadavers, or undergo corneal epithelial transplant after the cells are cultured on human amniotic membrane. The success rate in these cases is less than 30 per cent, he said.

If the research is successful, the use of synthetic gel would significantly brighten the prospects of treatment, he added.

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