title: Whole-eye transplantation: a look into the past and vision for the future.
abstract: Blindness afflicts ~39 million people worldwide. Retinal ganglion cells are unable to regenerate, making this condition irreversible in many cases. Whole-eye transplantation (WET) provides the opportunity to replace diseased retinal ganglion cells, as well as the entire optical system and surrounding facial tissue, if necessary. Recent success in face transplantation demonstrates that this may be a promising treatment for what has been to this time an incurable condition. An animal model for WET must be established to further enhance our knowledge of nerve regeneration, immunosuppression, and technical aspects of surgery. A systematic review of the literature was performed to evaluate studies describing animal models for WET. Only articles in which the eye was completely enucleated and reimplanted were included. Study methods and results were compared. In the majority of published literature, WET can result in recovery of vision in cold-blooded vertebrates. There are a few instances in which mammalian WET models demonstrate survival of the transplanted tissue following neurovascular anastomosis and the ability to maintain brief electroretinogram activity in the new host. In this study we review in cold-blooded vertebrates and mammalian animal models for WET and discuss prospects for future research for translation to human eye transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bourne
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.|Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, XiJing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Komatsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.|Department of Ophthalmology, Eye and Ear Institute, Ophthalmology and Visual Science Research Center, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: E H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Davidson
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.|Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, XiJing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: I A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Rosner
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.|Department of Emergency, The First Affiliated Hospital of GuangXi Medical University, Nanning, GuangXi, China.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Solari
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, USA.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Schuman
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.|Veterans Administration Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Washington
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001766:Blindness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005123:Eye / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000637:transplantation*; D020221:Optic Nerve Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology*; D014022:Tissue Survival / Q000502:physiology