An Eye for an Eye May Not Make the World Blind?

Story of a lab meeting - Developing Cell-based Therapies for Corneal Disorders

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Our eyes are our windows to the world - they form the basis of our perception of our surroundings. This is possible due to one of the remarkable organ parts of our body, the cornea, which is a transparent dome-shaped structure covering the iris and the pupil of our eyes. The cornea plays a crucial role in controlling the amount of light entering the eye and focusing it onto the retina.

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According to the WHO, corneal disorders are the fourth leading cause of blindness worldwide. Nanomedicine Research Group, ICTMumbai ’s PhD scholar Bhargavi Ajgaonkar is working on developing cell-based therapies against corneal disorders, which will cure the disorders at their root cause, rather than just alleviating the resulting symptoms.

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Corneal disorders are mainly categorized into three types - corneal epithelial, stromal, and endothelial disorders. Of these three, developing therapies for corneal endothelial disorders is a challenge because the corneal endothelial cells lack regenerative capacity. Thus if damaged, there is little scope for their repair and the only viable treatment option that remains is surgical intervention. Hence, Bhargavi is primarily focusing on the development of cell-based therapies for corneal endothelial disorders.

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The first objective of her research project is to use cells derived from donor cornea tissues to develop corneal endothelial cell sheets, which will further be biologically and physicochemically evaluated, before being proposed as cell therapies. She begins with isolation of human corneal endothelial cells (HCECs) or bovine corneal endothelial cells (BCECs) (depending on availability) by the ‘Peel & Digest Method’. The Corneal Endothelium (CE) and Descemet's Membrane (DM) are carefully peeled, followed by enzymatic digestion to isolate the cells. Once isolated, they can be used for the development of cell sheets. Next, she wishes to investigate the role of antioxidants in the modulation of cell cycle progression and the underlying mechanisms.

The isolated cells are first characterized using ICC (Immunocytochemistry - technique wherein specific proteins or antigens in a cell are visualized using antibodies specifically recognizing the target of interest). For developing cell sheets from the isolated cells, Bhargavi uses a thermo-responsive polymer and GelMA (Gelatin-methacryloyl). Thermo-responsive polymers are widely used in biomedical fields for their property of transitioning physical properties with change in temperature. Bhargavi then studies the characteristics of the cell sheet by conducting cytotoxicity studies and visualizing the live-dead cells by confocal microscopy.

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Development of cell sheets is an intricate and tedious process, involving extensive experimentation. We wish her success to be able to help the thousands suffering from blindness due to corneal diseases.

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Author: Anushka Chaudhari (Science Communicator, Nanomedicine Research Group, ICT Mumbai)

Edited by: Dr. Prajakta Dandekar Jain (Principal Investigator, Nanomedicine Research Group, ICT Mumbai)

Bhargavi’s Publications:

Ajgaonkar, B. S., Kumaran, A., Kumar, S., Jain, R., & Dandekar, P. (2023). Cell-based therapies for corneal and retinal disorders. Stem Cell Reviews and Reports, 19(8), 2650–2682. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-023-10623-0

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References:

World Health Organization: WHO. (2023, August 10). Blindness and vision impairment. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blindness-and-visual-impairment

Ajgaonkar, B. S., Kumaran, A., Kumar, S., Jain, R., & Dandekar, P. (2023). Cell-based therapies for corneal and retinal disorders. Stem Cell Reviews and Reports, 19(8), 2650–2682. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-023-10623-0