New Strategies to Treat Corneal Endothelial Diseases: Cell Therapy, Bioengineering of Corneal Grafts and Pharmacological Treatment
A special issue of Bioengineering (ISSN 2306-5354). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2024) | Viewed by 6010
Special Issue Editors
Interests: corneal endothelial cells; cell culture; cell therapy; FECD (Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy); stem cells; eye banking; bioengineering of corneal endothelium; corneal epithelium; limbal stem cells; immunofluorescence; lens
2. Ophthalmology Department, University Hospital of Saint-Étienne, 42100 Saint-Etienne, France
Interests: cellular biology; animal developmental biology/ophthalmology
2. Ophthalmology Department, University Hospital of Saint-Étienne, 42100 Saint-Etienne, France
Interests: corneal endothelial cells; cell culture; cell therapy; FECD (Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy); stem cells; eye banking; bioengineering of corneal endothelium; corneal epithelium; limbal stem cells; immunofluorescence; lens
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Ten million patients suffer from bilateral corneal blindness, and only 1.4% of patients have received a corneal transplant due to a severe worldwide shortage of corneal donations (Gain et al., JAMA Ophthalmol, 2016). For the intermediate and late stages of endothelial dystrophies, cell therapy by injecting cultivated human corneal endothelial cells (CECs) into the anterior chamber has been shown to be effective in clinical trials and awaits its expansion (Kinoshita et al., NELM, 2018), and the bioengineering of corneal endothelial grafts is also an alternative method that has shown efficacy in animals. For the earlier stages of Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD), the most frequent endothelial disease, pharmacological treatments alone or in combination with surgery are in the pipelines (Okumura, Journal of Ophthalmology, 2017). All three strategies are in full development and will be applicable in the clinic within 5 to 10 years to replace corneal (endothelial) transplantation.
This Special Issue will focus on recent developments in the three strategies for the treatment of endothelial dystrophy: cell therapy, bioengineering of corneal grafts and pharmacological treatment.
The journal will be accepting contributions (both original articles and reviews) mainly centered on the following topics:
- Progress in cell culture for obtaining CECs in vitro (primary cell culture of human CECs and realistic differentiation methods based on other types of stem cells or iPS);
- Bioengineering of endothelial grafts (realistic new material and/or process);
- Progress in the pharmacological treatment of FECD or endothelial dystrophy;
- Any clinical cases of the application of the three strategies;
- Any significant progress for supporting the development of the three strategies and their industrialization, such as ex vivo or in vitro models/tools for validation of the functionality of cultured CECs or of bioengineered endothelial grafts, and methods for the preservation of the human corneas, cultured cells and bioengineered endothelial grafts for industrialization;
- New strategies and processes for the treatment of endothelial dystrophy.
Dr. Zhiguo He
Prof. Dr. Gilles Thuret
Dr. Sylvain Poinard
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- corneal endothelial cells
- cell therapy
- bioengineering of corneal endothelium
- cell culture
- FECD (Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy)
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