This photo of Andrew and Jarrett's girl cousins has nothing to do with damaged cornea advances -- I just like this picture because it's so sweet and they look so happy. Krissy took it a couple of years ago.
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Friday, August 27, 2010 - Last night, while I was talking to Granny, she mentioned that Grandpa had heard a story on WGN news at noon about pioneering efforts to repair corneal damage caused by injury or disease (e.g., herpes zoster ophthalmicus). That's shingles in the eye to you lay people.

She also mentioned that there was story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday about research being done in Sweden concerning the same thing. Well, I found the story and here it is:

Associated Press - Scientists have created a new kind of artificial cornea, inserting a sliver of collagen into the eye, coaxing the eye's own natural corneal cells to regrow and restore vision.

It worked in a first-stage study of 10 patients in Sweden, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Larger studies are needed, but it's a step toward developing an alternative to standard cornea transplants, which aren't available in much of the world because of a shortage of donated corneas.

"We're trying to regenerate the cornea from within," said May Griffith, senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, of Canada, and professor of regenerative medicine at Linkoping University, Sweden.

Vision depends on a healthy cornea, the film-like covering of the eye's surface that helps it focus light. Corneas are easily harmed by injury or infection, and about 42,000 people in the U.S. receive transplanted corneas every year. But for many of the estimated 10 million people world-wide with corneal blindness, donated corneas aren't available. And transplants bring risk of rejection.

The new bio-artificial cornea attempts to induce healing by using the same natural substances in a real cornea. "I characterize this work as a major advance in the direction that we need to go," said Alan Carlson, cornea transplant chief at Duke University's eye center, who wasn't involved in the research.

A cornea's structure is made up of tissue called collagen. The researchers took human collagen grown in yeast and molded it into a contact lens-like shape—the scaffolding for a cornea. Dr. Griffith, working with Linkoping University eye surgeon Per Fagerholm, studied the bio-artificial cornea in 10 patients with severe vision loss from corneal damage.

Damaged tissue in one eye was removed, and the bio-artificial cornea implanted. Soon, cells that line a healthy cornea started growing in the collagen. Tear production normalized, and even corneal nerves regrew, which researchers could test by measuring sensitivity.

There was no rejection, and patients didn't need immune-suppressing medication. Two years later, six of the patients had significantly improved vision with glasses and two were no worse.

—Copyright 2010 Associated Press

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If the above article doesn't give me hope to one day regain my visual acuity, then nothing will. At least, I'm able to remain pain-free and have some sense of normalcy back in my life because of the autologous serum eye drops.

I promised myself that I would never run out of them again like I did last time. It's taken me about two and a half weeks to get back to where I was before the drops lost their efficacy. Apparently, they last about 10 weeks instead of 13. Imagine my surprise when I figured that out. oh yeah.

All righty, it's time to skedaddle. see ya later, djb