Disease and damage to the cornea can cause blindness. While corneal transplants could save sight, donor corneas may be hard to come by, and may not be tolerated. A safe artificial cornea could be a solution to saving the vision of those affected.
In cooperation with the Aachen Centre of Technology Transfer, a research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer research IAP in Potsdam, Germany, are working to develop an implantable artificial cornea.
Based on a polymer with high water-absorbent properties, researchers say their new cornea is easy to implant and contains a new surface coating to enhance its anchoring in host tissue and option functionality. In addition, they aimed to enlarge the optical surface area of the implant in order to improve light penetration.
But since one type is not enough to treat all patients, the specialists have also managed to make a chemically and biologically inert base material biologically compatible for a second type of artificial cornea, which allows the patient’s cornea to bond together naturally with the edge of the implant, while its inner optics, made of silicon, remain free of cells and clear. This type of implant is particularly suitable as a treatment if the cornea has been destroyed as a consequence of chronic inflammation, a serious accident, corrosion or burns.
