Copyright
©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Jan 26, 2020; 12(1): 35-54
Published online Jan 26, 2020. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v12.i1.35
Published online Jan 26, 2020. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v12.i1.35
Sphere-forming corneal cells repopulate dystrophic keratoconic stroma: Implications for potential therapy
Himanshu Wadhwa, Salim Ismail, Jennifer J McGhee, Trevor Sherwin, Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1023, New Zealand
Bert Van der Werf, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1023, New Zealand
Author contributions: Wadhwa H and Ismail S participated in the experimental design, data acquisition analysis and manuscript writing; McGhee JJ participated in experimental design and cell and tissue preparation; Van der Werf B participated in data analysis and manuscript writing; Sherwin T participated in study design, experimental design and manuscript writing; All authors read, edited and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Save Sight Society of New Zealand , No. 37116543 ; New Zealand Wound Care Society , No. 3713325 ; John Hamel MacGregor Trust .
Institutional review board statement: This study was conducted under ethical approval by the Northern X Regional Ethics Committee and since reviewed by the Northern A Health and Disability Ethics Committee (New Zealand). Ethics reference: NTX/07/08/080/AM06
Conflict-of-interest statement: Prof. Sherwin reports grants from Save Sight Society of New Zealand, grants from Auckland Medical Research Foundation, grants from New Zealand Wound Care Society, and grants from John Hamel MacGregor Trust during the conduct of the study.
Data sharing statement: The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Trevor Sherwin, PhD, Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1023, New Zealand. t.sherwin@auckland.ac.nz
Received: June 25, 2019
Peer-review started: June 29, 2019
First decision: July 31, 2019
Revised: September 11, 2019
Accepted: November 13, 2019
Article in press: November 13, 2019
Published online: January 26, 2020
Processing time: 187 Days and 18 Hours
Peer-review started: June 29, 2019
First decision: July 31, 2019
Revised: September 11, 2019
Accepted: November 13, 2019
Article in press: November 13, 2019
Published online: January 26, 2020
Processing time: 187 Days and 18 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Keratoconus is a degenerative corneal disease characterised by aberrant cell behaviour and loss of matrix that can result in vision loss. Cells extracted from peripheral corneas can form stem cell-enriched spheres, which we introduced into normal and keratoconic corneal stroma. This study shows for the first time that implanted stem cell-enriched spheres are capable of repopulating the dystrophic corneal stromal surface in a directed manner. Spheres may therefore be used to replace or supplement diseased cells in keratoconic patients, thereby serving as an adjunct to current treatments.