Corneal treatment with adipose derived stem cells

Purpose: To evaluate the use of adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSC) from human lipoaspirate for the treatment of corneal damage in animal models. Methods: The study included data from experiments performed in rats and mice from 2009 to present in Italy and Spain, which are currently underway. Cornea lesion and histological experiments were performed to determine the best animal chemical burn. Rats underwent chemical burn lesions; and mouse eyes underwent laser-induced corneal lesions. Animals were randomly assigned to control or groups treated with stem cells, or blood plasma serum, or adipose tissue. Clinical and histological assessments were compared between groups to determine biosafety, re-epithelization, immunogenicity and efficacy of human derived ADSC in treating epithelialand stromal wounds in animal corneas. Results: Rat eyes treated with stem cells, or serum, or stem cells plus serum showed significantly smaller defect areas at each time point when compared with the control and adipose groups. The stem cell-treated eyes showed faster wound healing with smaller defect areas at each time point when compared to contralateral control eyes (P<0.05). Whole layer epithelium regeneration was observed in all stem cell-treated eyes. The epithelium of the stem cell-treated eyes closely resembled the native corneal epithelium. With regards to the mouse experiments, the fluorescein positive corneal lesion area was significantly smaller in the stem cell groups than the control eyes (P<0.05); on the first and the second day. Histological assessment indicated that epithelium from the stem cell-treated eyes was similar to uninjured epithelium, composed of 4 to 5 layers of uniform and perfectly structured epithelial cells. Conclusion: ADSC obtained from human lipoaspirate enhanced corneal wound healing in animal models. Corneal treatment with adipose derived stem cells. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280625956_Corneal_treatment_with_adipose_derived_stem_cells [accessed Nov 19, 2016].