EYE bank with Corneal & Ophthalmological Regenerative medicine Expertise
Welcome to EYECORE: Pioneering Excellence in Corneal and Ophthalmological Regenerative Medicine
At EYECORE, we are dedicated to advancing the frontier of eye care through cutting-edge regenerative medicine solutions. Our initiative revolves around the establishment of a state-of-the-art eye bank facilities that harnesses the power of regenerative medicine, spanning from basic translational research to groundbreaking clinical applications. With a singular focus on addressing various eye diseases, EYECORE stands at the forefront of innovation, offering hope and healing through cell-based therapies.
Key Features of EYECORE:
Comprehensive Eye Bank Facilities: EYECORE plans to set-up cutting-edge eye-bank facilities especially in developing nations especially in the African region that ensure the seamless processing, preservation, and distribution of corneal tissues. Our comprehensive eye bank facilities will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology to guarantee the highest standards in tissue quality.
Regenerative Medicine Expertise: Based on the excellent track record of developing cutting edge regenerative therapies by virtue of the AXIS alliance between GN Corporation Co. Ltd., Japan and the CESBANK initiative of Nichi-In Centre for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM) , our team of dedicated experts includes leaders in the field of regenerative medicine, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience to the forefront. From basic research to clinical applications, our experts are committed to pushing the boundaries of what is possible in ophthalmological care.
Cell-Based Therapies: EYECORE specializes in the development and implementation of the following cell-based therapies for a spectrum of eye diseases. We harness the regenerative potential of cells to repair and regenerate damaged tissues, providing innovative solutions for conditions that were once deemed untreatable.
Cornea is the transparent front portion of the eye, which transmits the images into the eye for visual perception. Cornea has three main layers, the outer epithelium, central stroma and the inner endothelium.
The cornea when damaged due to diseases of the corneal epithelium (Ulcers, chemical burns, Steven Johnson’s syndrome etc), unilateral or bilateral or the endothelium (Bullous Keratopathy) may need to be transplanted with a cornea from a deceased donor. Even in case of endothelial damage alone, instead of replacing the endothelium with donor endothelial layer alone, the whole cornea is usually transplanted.
In today’s practice, the eyeball is harvested and if the cornea is of usable quality, then it is preserved and transported in cool conditions to the needy patient’s place where the patient’s cornea is removed and the donor cornea is transplanted. The deceased donor cornea should be harvested within six hours from the death of the donor and it is preserved in specialized media under cool conditions to be transplanted within a maximum of two weeks to a needy patient who should be identified within that span of time.
Statistics:
- 4.9 million People suffer from bilateral corneal blindness while 23 million suffer from unilateral corneal blindness globally.
- The number of patients with stand-alone endothelial diseases in need of transplant is 28,00,000 globally.
- As per the data in 2011, nearly 150,000 corneal transplants were done worldwide in 2011
Existing hurdles for Corneal Transplantation:
- Donor cornea shortage due to lack of awareness on corneal donation and use of whole corneas for standalone endothelial diseases instead of endothelial layer transplantation alone.
- Lack of established systems and infrastructure to liaise between the donor and the recipient for proper retrieval and utilization of the donor corneas.
- Issues in cold chain transportation from remote places.
- Unusable corneas for transplantation. Data indicates that nearly 70% of the donor corneas are discarded without being used. The main reason due to which the corneas are discarded even when they are free from infection is due to low endothelial cell density which makes them unsuitable for routine corneal transplantation.
The following cell-based regenerative medicine approaches developed by GN Corporation and NCRM offer a potential solution to the above problems.
- Among the indications for corneal transplantation, half of the patients have corneal endothelial disease alone. These patients need not have their entire cornea transplanted. Rather they can benefit from approaches which can address their corneal endothelial disease alone.
- NCRM has successfully demonstrated that it is possible to transport the highly sensitive corneal endothelial layer in Indian climatic conditions over long distances without the need for cold chain preservation using a novel nanopolymer cocktail and we have been able to isolate viable corneal endothelial cells even from corneal endothelial tissues transported over 72 hours without cool preservation. It is important to note that discarded corneas found unsuitable for transplantation were employed in this study.
Sudhakar J, Parikumar P, Natarajan S, Insaan A, Yoshioka H, Mori Y, Tsukahara S, Baskar S, Manjunath S, Senthilkumar R, Thamaraikannan P, Srinivasan T, Preethy S, Abraham S. Successful Transportation of Human Corneal Endothelial Tissues without Cool preservation in varying Indian Tropical climatic Conditions and in vitro Cell Expansion using a novel Polymer. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2013.
Namitha B, Chitra MR, Bhavya M, Katoh S, Yoshioka H, Iwasaki M, Senthilkumar R, Rajmohan M, Karthick R, Preethy S, Abraham SJK. A novel human donor cornea preservation cocktail incorporating a thermo-reversible gelation polymer (TGP), enhancing the corneal endothelial cell density maintenance and explant culture of corneal limbal cells . Biotechnology Letters 2021. doi:10.1007/s10529-021-03116-y
- It is important to note that earlier, it was believed that the corneal endothelial cells were incapable of cell division or regeneration in the adult. NCRM obtained the expertise of Prof. Amano's team in Japan who had demonstrated that it is possible to expand adult corneal endothelial progenitors in the lab and NCRM has also been able to expand the corneal endothelial precursor cells in the lab from the above mentioned transported corneal endothelial tissues using a novel nanopolymer based culture technique with an aim of using corneal endothelial cells from one donor cornea to several recipient eyes.
- In a subsequent study, NCRM was able to expand corneal endothelial precursor cells from one human donor cornea and was able to transplant the expanded cells to three bovine cadaver corneas, employing a nanocomposite gel based methodology for support to the cells during transplantation. The results proved the successful engraftment of the human corneal endothelial cells to the bovine cornea.
Parikumar P, Haraguchi K, Ohbayashi A, Senthilkumar R, Abraham S. Successful transplantation of in vitro expanded human cadaver corneal endothelial precursor cells on to a cadaver Bovine's eye using a Nanocomposite gel sheet. Current Eye Research. Posted online on October 21, 2013. doi:10.3109/02713683.2013.838633
- A pilot clinical study in human patients on the transplantation of corneal endothelial precursor cells expanded from one human donor cornea to three patients with corneal endothelial diseases like Bullous Keratopathy has been successfully conducted with positive outcome.
Parikumar P, Haraguchi K, Senthilkumar R, Abraham SJ. . Human corneal endothelial cell transplantation using nanocomposite gel sheet in bullous keratopathy . Am J Stem Cells. 2018 Feb 1;7(1):18-24
A 16-year follow-up of a patient from this pilot clinical study has been published. At 16 years post-intervention, the cornea remained stable without active disease, with no new bullae formation and a smooth epithelial surface showing no fluid transport abnormalities. Although a slight reduction in corneal thickness was observed, the disease-free area at the time of the intervention remained clear. Human corneal endothelial cell transplantation using Nanocomposit gel sheets presents a promising, minimally invasive method for achieving long-term corneal stability in bullous keratopathy following corneal graft failure. This technique, ICE-TUBE (In-vitro expanded Corneal Endothelial precursors- Transplanted Using Blis-film: Eye-for-eyes mission) addresses the donor cornea shortage concerns and makes our concept “an-eye-for-eyes”, a reality.
Parikumar P, Haraguchi K, Senthilkumar R, Abraham SJ. Human corneal endothelial cell transplantation with nanocomposite gel sheet preserves corneal stability in post-corneal transplant bullous keratopathy: a 16-year follow-up. Am J Stem Cells 2024;13(3):162-168. | doi: 10.62347/CBYH7014
- For unilateral corneal epithelial diseases, we also have evaluated the efficacy of the technique Limbal epithelium Expanded and Encapsulated in scaffold – Hybrid Approach to Regenerate Cornea (LEES-HARC) in which autologous expanded corneal epithelial cell transplants derived from harvested Limbal biopsy are cultured on a thermo-reversible gelation polymer (TGP) and transplanted for the management of unilateral Limbal Stem Cell deficiency (LSCD). Corneal Limbal biopsies from 12 rabbits were cultured on TGP, harvested after three weeks and were transplanted in induced Limbal stem cell deficient rabbit eyes. The technique LEES-HARC was a total success in seven rabbits, partial success in two and failure in three eyes. Histology of the seven successful rabbits’ eyes showed successful growth of corneal epithelium. Immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR showed the corneal phenotype and stem cell associated markers in the Limbus of the seven successful eyes, which indicates the homing of the cultured cells into the Limbus suggesting that the LEES-HARC may restore a nearly normal ocular epithelial surface in eyes with unilateral LSCD. We have thus proven the abilities of the TGP to serve as multipurpose scaffold for (i) in vitro culture, (ii) ex vivo encapsulation, and in vivo transplantation (iii), enabling engraftment of limbal stem cells to treat unilateral corneal epithelial damage.
A simplified procedure called Limbal epithelium Hashed & Encapsulated in Scaffold- Hybrid Approach to Regeneration of the Corneal epithelium (LHES-HARC) is under proposal
Further inter-disciplinary interactions with polymer scientists in Japan helped develop a even safer variant of this TGP scaffold free from endotoxin, the “FESTIGEL” (Free-from-Endotoxin-Scaffold of Thermoresponsive Intelli-GEL), , exclusively for translational applications.
Sitalakshmi G, Sudha B, Madhavan HN, Vinay S, Krishnakumar S, Mori Y, Yoshioka H, Abraham S. Ex vivo cultivation of corneal limbal epithelial cells in a thermoreversible polymer (Mebiol Gel) and their transplantation in rabbits: an animal model. Tissue Eng Part A. 2009;15(2):407-15.
Sudha B, Madhavan HN, Sitalakshmi G, Malathi J, Krishnakumar S, Mori Y, Yoshioka H, Abraham S. Cultivation of human corneal limbal stem cells in Mebiol gel - A thermo-reversible gelation polymer. 1. Indian J Med Res. 2006;124(6):655-64
Senthilkumar R, Yoshioka H, Katoh S, Iwasaki M, VSurya Prakash V, Balamurugan M, Dedeepiya VD, Preethy S, Abraham. Engraftment and proliferation of thermoreversible-gelation-polymer-encapsulated human corneal limbal-stem-cells on ocular surface of a cadaver cornea. Current Eye Research. doi: 10.1080/02713683.2023.2180039.
- For bilateral corneal epithelial damage, the autologous oral mucosal epithelium can be used for transplantation. This method is advantageous because in vivo oral mucosal epithelium expresses keratin 3, which is also expressed by the corneal epithelium and the Excision of a small piece of oral mucosal tissue from the patient is relatively easy. The technique developed by NCRM has been possible to use the thermo-reversible gel polymer (TGP) to expand the buccal mucosal cells without feeder layers for transplantation to the corneal in case of bilateral corneal epithelial damage.
Srinivas KR, Sujatha M, Mohan R, Senthilnagarajan R, Baskar S, Senthil KR. Abraham S. Buccal Epithelium in treating Ocular Surface Disorders . Buccal Epithelium in treating Ocular Surface Disorders . J Stem cell Regen Med. 2008; 4 (1):18-19.
Horiguchi A, Ojima K, Shinchi M, Kushibiki T, Mayumi Y, Kushibiki T, Katoh S, Takeda M, Iwasaki M, Yoshioka H, Suryaprakash V, Balamurugan M, Senthilkumar R, Abraham SJK. In Vitro Culture Expansion and Characterization of Buccal Mucosal Epithelial Cells for Tissue Engineering Applications in Urethral Stricture After Transportation Using a Thermoreversible Gelation Biopreservation and Biobanking 2021.
Katoh S, Rao KS, Suryaprakash V, Horiguchi A, Kushibiki T, Ojima K, Iwasaki M, Takeda M, Senthilkumar R, Rajmohan M, Karthick R, Preethy S, Abraham S. A 3D polymer scaffold platform for enhanced in vitro culture of Human & Rabbit buccal epithelial cells for cell therapies . Tokai J Exp Clin Med 2021; 46(1):1-6
Horiguchi A, Ojima K, Shinchi M, Kushibiki T, Mayumi Y, Miyai K, Katoh S, Takeda M, Iwasaki M, Suryaprakash V, Balamurugan M, Rajmohan M, Preethy S, Abraham SJK. Successful engraftment of epithelial cells derived from autologous rabbit buccal mucosal tissue, encapsulated in a polymer scaffold in a rabbit model of a urethral stricture, transplanted using the transurethral approach. Regen. Ther. 2021; 18:127-132. doi: 10.1016/j.reth.2021.05.004.
Collaborative Partnerships: EYECORE believes in the power of collaboration. We actively seek partnerships with research institutions, universities, and industry leaders to foster an environment of shared knowledge and expertise, driving the field of ophthalmological regenerative medicine forward.
Join Us in Shaping the Future of Eye Care: EYECORE invites you to be a part of our journey in transforming eye care through regenerative medicine. Whether you are a patient seeking innovative treatments or a researcher looking to collaborate, we welcome you to explore the possibilities that EYECORE offers in the pursuit of a brighter, clearer future.
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