BILATERAL EPITHELIAL DISEASES

Bilateral Limbal stem cell deficiency may occur due to chemical/thermal injuries, Steven Johnson syndrome etc in which the Buccal mucosa can be used as an alternative for corneal surface reconstruction.

Following the protocols described by Nishida and others in the literatures, NCRM is able to expand autologous oral mucosal epithelium for transplantation in the cornea in case of Bilateral Limbal stem cell damage.

This method is advantageous because in vivo oral mucosal epithelium expresses keratin 3, which is also expressed by the corneal epithelium and the Excision of a small piece of oral mucosal tissue from the patient is relatively easy.The transparent carrier free sheets of tissue-engineered epithelial cells fabricated from oral mucosal epithelial cells are similar to the transparency of corneal epithelial-cell sheets originating from Limbal Stem Cells.