Biogel will replace the cornea and contact lenses

The team of scientists from Stanford University ( Stanford University ) made a breakthrough in the field of ophthalmology, the university’s official website reports. Himik engineer Curtis Frank ( Curtis Frank ), physician and chemist-technologist David Myung, and ophthalmologist Christopher TA developed an artificial cornea that differs from all previous attempts to create such materials.

The new material, called Duoptix , is distinguished by unique parameters, both optical and biological. This is a hydrogel of a complex composition in which the share of water can reach 80%, which is identical to the water content in human tissues. There is a firm phase in the hydrogel - a designed three -dimensional network of complex shape. When transplanting new material into the eye, living cells from surrounding fabrics go into it, which willingly multiply in a new place and produce collagen, reliably combining an implanted artificial cornea with the patient's eyeball. And outside the “cornea” disk grows the finest layer of transparent epithelium cells.

New material can replace the transplantation of cornea from corpses almost completely, which is important due to the constant lack of donor organs and due to a significant probability of rejection of someone else's tissue. Duoptix is ​​distinguished by 100 percent biological compatibility and the possibility of mass production. In addition, an artificial cornea can be made perfectly verified shape, and it works almost immediately, while after an operation to transplant a donor cornea, the restoration of vision takes from six months to a year.

The authors of the work also report that, in addition to the artificial cornea, the Duoptix material can be turned into more convenient contact lenses with an extended wearing period, or even implanted contact lenses that can be replaced by surgically if a person’s vision has changed.