The deterioration of the cellular monolayer in the corneal endothelium is the main cause of the need for a cornea transplant. To reconstruct this monolayer in vitro, autologous cell-based therapies are necessary, which require strategies in which embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells are used. However, the use of these cells presents ethical problems as well as limited clinical applications.

For this reason, researchers at the Bioengineering Institute of Technology at UIC Barcelona have carried out a study focusing on the use of stem cells extracted from dental pulp to form the cellular monolayer of the corneal endothelium. “Our hypothesis is that the use of the patient’s own cells will allow direct differentiation to cornea cells, thus avoiding the limitations of current treatments,” explained Begoña Bosch, the first author of the study.

“Because stem cells in the dental pulp share an embryological origin with endothelial cells in the cornea because they both emerge from the neural crest; in this research we performed a two-step differentiation protocol. In the first, stem cells in the dental pulp become cells similar to those in the neutral crest, and then they become cells similar to those in the corneal endothelium,” explained Román Pérez, the principal investigator for the study.

The article, entitled “Discovering the Potential of Dental Pulp Stem Cells for corneal Endowment Cell Production: A proof of concept”, has recently been published in the journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, and was written in cooperation with researchers from the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami (USA) and the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London.