Corneal perspectives

Two independent findings could increase the availability of tissue for corneal transplants. A University of California, San Diego-led team has created a new source of limbal stem cells-which are needed for clear vision-by expressing PAX6 in skin epithelial cells, while a Harvard Medical School-led group showed that the ATP-binding cassette transporter ABCB5 is a marker for selection of limbal stem cells with enhanced regenerative potential.^1,2

For the UCSD team, the therapeutic potential of the method might rest on whether it can produce a sufficiently homogeneous population of limbal stem cells for clinical use and find a clinically viable way to increase PAX6 (paired box 6) expression. The Harvard team has licensed an ABCB5 (ATP-binding cassette sub-family B (MDR/TAP) member 5)-...