Current clinical status for cornea disease and transplant

20,000-50,000 patients annually in Japan awaiting corneal transplants.

Cornea disease is technically incurable using artificial material at present. Healing methodology relies nearly 100% on provision of donor corneas. Nonetheless, with only about 1,500 donors annually, cornea disease therapy is limited by a serious shortage of the donors.

What is the regenerative cornea product from CellSeed?

Corneal donor shortages have created a need for effective, therapeutic solutions for patients. We have developed a new methodology to alleviate the corneal doner shortage problems: a living regenerative cornea.

If cells can be harvested from either eye, a very small quantity (1-2 mm) of the patient's non-affected eye's cornea is collected, cultured and grown on a specially coated cell culture dish UpCell® . Cultured cornea cells are then harvested as a convenient sheet and transplanted to the patient.

If both eyes are diseased and unsuitable for cell donation, an autologous oral mucous membrane will essentially achieve the same results.

Product Application

Corneal tissue comprises three layers: epithelium, stroma and endothelium. Only epithelium is regenerative at present. Therefore clinical application of regenerative living cornea is limited to such epithelial pathologies as alkaline injury, impoverished cornea and Stevens-Johnson syndrome.

What are the advantages of the regenerative living cornea?

Because the only current treatment for cornea disease is donor transplant, many patients wait for donor tissue, and this simply takes time. Even if donor tissue is identified, continuous anti-rejection medication is required.

A CellSeed's regenerative living cornea is readily available with no waiting and no histological match required. Rejection problems are minimized since the patient uses his or her own cells for their cell sheet replacement and corneal regeneration.

How can I take the advantages of this CellSeed's unique therapeutic technology?

This corneal regeneration methodology is still under clinical development at a research-clinical stage at present. Clinical trials will be conducted in a large scale at Osaka University, department of Ophthalmology. We are committed to bring this promising, innovative therapy to patients in every hospital throughout the world.