Early Intervention Stem Cell-Based Therapy (EISCBT) for Corneal Burns and Trauma
Abstract
The goal of this project is to develop a stem cell-based regenerative corneal bandage (ReCoBand) that can be applied in the battlefield to prevent permanent scarring of the cornea after trauma, blast, or burn wounds. In the second year of this project we have: (1) developed an assay to characterized anti-inflammatory properties of human corneal stem cells, (2) used the assay to compare cell lines isolated from 20 different individual donors, (3) carried out RNAseq on six cell lines with high and low anti-inflammatory properties and used bioinformatics on the RNAseq data to discover a set of marker genes that can be used to screen cell lines for anti-inflammatory properties. Additionally we have (4) developed a wound healing assay in mice to measure the extent to which stem cells block corneal scarring, (5) carried out preliminary experiments demonstrating that stem cells in plastic-compressed collagen gels are highly effective at preventing scarring when applied to the surface of a wounded eye, and (6) showed that that the gel-embedded stem cells can be cryopreserved. These accomplishments meet the proposed milestones and predict success in meeting the overall goals of the project by the end of its 3 year time-course.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1033410
Entities
People
- James L Funderburgh
Organizations
- University of Pittsburgh