{"id":456715,"date":"2022-08-16T11:52:53","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T09:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=456715"},"modified":"2022-08-16T12:20:21","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T10:20:21","slug":"bioengineered-pig-skin-implants-restore-eyesight-for-19-people-including-14-deemed-legally-blind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/science\/456715-bioengineered-pig-skin-implants-restore-eyesight-for-19-people-including-14-deemed-legally-blind.html","title":{"rendered":"Bioengineered pig skin implants restore eyesight for 19 people \u2014 including 14 deemed legally blind"},"content":{"rendered":"

A team of scientists at the Link\u00f6ping University in Sweden have developed a way to help people with damaged corneas and even restored the eyesight of 19 during a recent clinical trial, Gizmodo reported<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The scientists restored people’s eyesight using bioengineered implants created from pig skin \u2014 including several deemed legally blind.<\/p>\n

Corneas tend to heal from minor abrasions with relative ease. However, significant damage and some diseases can lead to permanent damage, requiring a corneal graft, or a transplant, to restore vision.<\/p>\n

Like various donated organs, corneas have to be used timeously and are often in short supply.<\/p>\n

However, bioengineered implants from pig skin could provide a mass-produced alternative to corneal grafts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Cornea implant made of collagen protein from pig’s skin. Photo: Thor Balkhed\/Link\u00f6ping University<\/p><\/div>\n

The team published<\/a><\/strong> their research in the Nature Biotechnology journal, detailing how they used the implants on 20 patients with advanced keratoconus \u2014 a disease that causes the cornea to progressively thin out.<\/p>\n

Significant eyesight improvements were observed in 19 of the 20 patients, of which 14 were previously considered legally blind.<\/p>\n

The patients’ improved vision has persisted for two years, with no reported adverse effects.<\/p>\n

“The results show that it is possible to develop a biomaterial that meets all the criteria for being used as human implants, which can be mass-produced and stored up to two years and thereby reach even more people with vision problems,” study author Mehrdad Rafat said in a statement<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

Now read: Mechanical engineers turn dead spiders into “necrobotic” claws<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The procedure improved the vision of 19 out of 20 clinical trial patients, with no reported adverse effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":452412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31750],"tags":[80639,80643,80641,80647],"class_list":["post-456715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-cornea","tag-corneal-implant","tag-linkoping-university","tag-mehrdad-rafat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456749,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456715\/revisions\/456749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}