HOW STEM CELL TRANSPLANT HELPS

EYE CARE has seen new breakthroughs, many of them achieved indigenously. For instance, Hyderabad headquartered L.V. Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) uses adult stem cells, instead of the more controversial embryonic stem cells, to help patients recover from damaged cells. Dr Sayan Basu, a consultant cornea surgeon and scientist at LVPEI, explains that simple limbal epithelial transplantation, or SLET, is the procedure to replace damaged stem cells with healthy ones, taken from the patient. Technically, limbal stem cell deficiency can be treated “by transplanting healthy limbal tissue to the surface of the diseased eye for in-vivo (at the site where it is required or on the eye) expansion of epithelial cells”, he says. It means instead of using the lab to grow the stem cells on a tissue, doctors are using the damaged eye itself as the surface to grow the stem cells taken from the patient’s healthy eye. Normally, when the cornea gets damaged, stem cells cannot regenerate, leading to eventual blindness. The cost of this treatment is

` 16,000-86,000. Dr Basu says laser treatments are increasingly used for eye care, and robotic surgery may soon take cataract treatment to a new level.