Artificial Cornea Restored

Receiving a corneal transplant is the only hope many people have of ever being able to see again. Official statistics show that, throughout the European Union, more than 40,000 individuals wait for this small piece of tissue every year. In Germany alone, the number is 7,000, and many of those people never get their transplants. Taking matters into their own hands, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Potsdam-Golm, led by expert Dr Joachim Storsberg, developed a plastic polymer that can act as an artificial cornea, potentially restoring at least partial sight to thousands, AlphaGalileo reports.

The German research team developed both the material used for the artificial corneas, and the production process that goes with creating these plastic polymers. The innovation is bound to assist the large number of patients whose bodies cannot tolerate other people's corneas for a wide variety of reasons, ranging from the nature of their disease to the fact that the corneas they received do not function properly. The team behind the new prosthesis has been awarded the 2010 Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize for their advancements in this field.

The most challenging task the team had to face was designing a material with contradictory specifications. For example, they had to make the edges of the artificial corneas adhere firmly into tissues surrounding them, but at the same time keep the center of the prosthetic device clear. Designing corneas that eventually get covered in cells would have defeated the purpose, scientists say. Additionally, the outer part of the implant needed to respond to tears, which play a protective and cleansing role. If that didn't happen, then patients would have had to change their implants fairly often.

A number of the new devices have already been implanted in patients during a clinical test. An additional batch of people will receive their new artificial corneas the first six months of 2010. The Fraunhofer team says that it took years for them and partners to develop the new prosthesis, which is the result of advanced work in polymer science, materials science, and also in engineering technology. The effort was a part of the EU-funded interdisciplinary project called “Artificial Cornea.”