title: Corneal epithelial stem cell delivery using cell sheet engineering: not lost in transplantation.
abstract: Cell-based therapies have now generated significant interest as novel drug delivery systems, with various adult cell types used in treating a wide range of diseases. To overcome the limits that restrict treatments for corneal surface dysfunction, corneal epithelial stem cells expanded ex vivo have been applied as an alternative approach. While previous studies used various carrier substrates, we present a novel method using cell sheet engineering with temperature-responsive culture dishes to create carrier-free corneal epithelial stem cell sheets that can be transplanted without sutures. Results from clinical trials reveal successful transplantation with the recovery of lost visual acuity in all cases. Cell sheet engineering, therefore, presents a novel method for the delivery of corneal epithelial stem cells, and can also be applied for other approaches of cellular therapeutics.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamato
authors.forename: Kohji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishida
authors.forename: Yasutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hayashida
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tano
authors.forename: Teruo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okano
mesh_terms: D016039:Corneal Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D019573:Epithelium, Corneal / Q000166:cytology* / Q000637:transplantation; D006801:Humans; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D013696:Temperature; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous