STEM CELL RESEARCH & THE EYE

According to ISSCR, Stem cell research is a evolving technology that takes primitive human cells and develops them into most any of the 220 varieties of cells in the human body, including blood cells,brain cells,eye,etc
Stem cells have two properties. First, they can ‘self-renew,’ that is they can divide and give rise to more stem cells of the same kind. Second, they can mature or ‘differentiate’ into specialized cells that carry out a specific function, such as in the skin, muscle, or blood
A stem cell therapy is a treatment.This utilises stem cells, to replace or to repair a patient’s cells or tissues that are damaged. The stem cells might be put into the blood, or transplanted into the damaged tissue directly, or even recruited from the patient’s own tissues for self-repair.
Blood stem cells by bone marrow transplant is being done more than 50 years, and advanced techniques for collecting blood stem cells are now used clinically. Umbilical cord blood, like bone marrow, is often collected as a source of blood stem cells and is being used experimentally as an alternative to bone marrow in transplantation.
A few years ago, Dr. Funderburgh and other University of Pittsburgh researchers identified stem cells in a layer of the cornea called the stroma.The US team took stem cells from human corneas and implanted them into the eyes of partially blind mice who were missing a structural protein.
Three months after treatment with the cells, the cloudiness was gone and their corneas were as transparent as those of normal mice.
We look forward to more good news from Stem Cell therapy.So keep watching this space for more and more news on Stem Cell therapy in the Eye.

GROWING RESISTANCE TO OCULAR ANTI-BIOTICS

Eye bacterial infections include conjunctivitis,keratitis, endophthalmitis,preseptal cellulitis,orbital cellulitis, and dacryocystitis.Broad spectrum antibiotics are the choice of treatment.These are effective against the most common bacteria associated with these ocular infections. However, the widespread use of broad-spectrum systemic antibiotics has resulted in resistance among both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria to a number of the older antibiotics used to treat ophthalmic infections.

A recently published study from India has shown a link between in vitro resistance and clinical failure to respond in patients with keratitis caused by Pseudomonas isolates. Garg et al(Ophthalmology 1999;106:1319-2)reported that of 141 culture-proven cases of Pseudomonas keratitis, 22 cases were caused by isolates resistant to ciprofloxacin (mean MIC 43mg/ml). Of the 19 (of 22) cases treated initially with ciprofloxacin, 15 (76.7 per cent) worsened or showed no clinical improvement after three days of intensive therapy and required modification of antibiotic therapy, corneal grafting or evisceration (surgical removal of the contents of the eyeball).

Broad-spectrum, bactericidal antibiotics and its resistance is becoming a greater problem in managing ocular bacterial infections.The fourth-generation fluoroquinolones with broader gram-positive coverage and greater effectiveness against emerging resistant isolates are now available for ophthalmic use.