Original ArticlePhenotypic Investigation of Human Eyes with Transplanted Autologous Cultivated Oral Mucosal Epithelial Sheets for Severe Ocular Surface Diseases
Section snippets
Subjects
All experimental procedures and clinical applications introduced here were approved by the Institutional Review Board for Human Studies of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine; prior informed consent was obtained from all patients in accordance with the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki for research involving human subjects.
Our study included 3 eyes from 2 patients with SJS and 3 chemically injured eyes from 3 patients. All had undergone autologous COMET; in 4 eyes (4 patients), the
Successful Grafts
Light microscopic examination of removed corneal buttons disclosed some histologic variations. Most areas showed 5 to 6 stratified cell layers and cornealike (oral mucosal sheet) epithelial cells (Fig 1J). Epithelial thickening without epithelial papillar structures was noted in some areas (Fig 1L). The AM substrate was clearly observed throughout the epithelium and there were no inflammatory cells. A cultivated oral epithelial sheet on amniotic membrane is also shown for the purpose of
Discussion
We previously demonstrated that COMET holds promise as a novel surgical treatment for severe OSD such as SJS, ocular cicatricial pemphigoid, and chemical injury.10, 11, 12 This new surgical modality does not require long-term postoperative immunosuppression because there is no risk for postoperative graft rejection. At present, the morphologic and biological corneal phenotypes after COMET are not fully understood. Here we demonstrated for the first time that our clinical slit-lamp findings were
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Manuscript no. 2006-648.
Supported in part by grants-in-aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Tokyo, Japan (no. H16–Saisei-007), and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Tokyo, Japan (Kobe Translational Research Cluster); a research grant from the Kyoto Foundation for the Promotion of Medical Science, Kyoto, Japan; and the Intramural Research Fund of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine.
The authors have no financial or propriety interest in the products mentioned in the article.