LONDON: In a major breakthrough, an
inkjet printer in Britain can print eye cells which can be used to cure human blindness.
For the first time ever, researchers from UK have used inkjet printing
technology to successfully print two types of cells from the retina of
adult rats - ganglion cells and glial cells.
The breakthrough
could lead to the production of artificial tissue grafts made from the
variety of cells found in the human retina and may aid in the search to
cure blindness.
In their study, the researchers used a
piezoelectric inkjet printer device that ejected the cells through a
sub-millimetre diameter nozzle when a specific electrical pulse was
applied. They also used high speed video technology to record the
printing process with high resolution and optimised their procedures
accordingly.
"In order for a fluid to print well from an inkjet
print head, its properties, such as viscosity and surface tension, need
to conform to a fairly narrow range of values. Adding cells to the
fluid complicates its properties significantly," Dr Wen-Kai Hsiao from
the Inkjet Research Centre in Cambridge University said.
Professor Keith Martin and Dr Barbara Lorber from the John van Geest
Centre for Brain Repair, University of Cambridge, said "The loss of
nerve cells in the retina is a feature of many blinding eye diseases.
The retina is an exquisitely organised structure where the precise
arrangement of cells in relation to one another is critical for
effective visual function".
"Our study has shown, for the first
time, that cells derived from the mature central nervous system, the
eye, can be printed using a piezoelectric inkjet printer. Although our
results are preliminary and much more work is still required, the aim is
to develop this technology for use in retinal repair in the future".
The finding could be a big boon for blind people across the world.
India is home to the world's largest number of blind people. Of the 37
million people across the globe who are blind, over 15 million are from
India.
Once printed, a number of tests were performed on each
type of cell to see how many of the cells survived the process and how
it affected their ability to survive and grow.
The cells
derived from the retina of the rats were retinal ganglion cells, which
transmit information from the eye to certain parts of the brain, and
glial cells, which provide support and protection for neurons.
"We plan to extend this study to print other cells of the retina and to
investigate if light-sensitive photoreceptors can be successfully
printed using inkjet technology. In addition, we would like to further
develop our printing process to be suitable for commercial, multi-nozzle
print heads," Professor Martin concluded.
At the moment the
results are preliminary and provide proof-of-principle that an inkjet
printer can be used to print two types of cells from the retina of adult
rats.
This is the first time the technology has been used
successfully to print mature central nervous system cells and the
results showed that printed cells remained healthy and retained their
ability to survive and grow in culture.
The ability to arrange
cells into highly defined patterns and structures has recently elevated
the use of 3D printing in the biomedical sciences to create cell-based
structures for use in regenerative medicine.
BLINDNESS IN INDIA India is now home to the world's largest number of blind people.
Of the 37 million people across the globe who are blind, over 15 million are from India.
75% of these are cases of avoidable blindness.
India faces severe shortage of optometrists and donated eyes for the treatment of blindness.
While India needs 40,000 optometrists, it has only 8,000.
India needs 2.5 lakh donated eyes every year.
India's 109 eye banks manage to collect a maximum of just 25,000 eyes, 30% of which can't be used.
India has only 12,000 ophthalmologists.
153 million people in the country require reading glasses but do not have access to them.
India has just 20 optometry schools which produce just 1,000
optometrists annually as against the 17 million people being added to
the population during the same period.
Of the 15 million blind people in India, three million, 26% of whom are children, suffer due to corneal disorders.
But only 10,000 corneal transplants are being done every year due to the shortage of donated eyes.
India's health ministry expects to reach its
blindness elimination target of 0.3% by 2015, five years before the WHO deadline of 2020.
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