A.V. BEZUSHKO¹, A.S. DUBOVIKOV¹, A.N. KULIKOV¹, S.V. CHURASHOV¹, V.F. CHERNYSH¹, M.I. BLINOVA², O.I. ALEKSANDROVA², A.A. SUETOV¹, I.O. GAVRILYUK¹

¹Military Medical Academy named after S.M. Kirov, 6 Akademika Lebedeva Str., Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, 194044

²Institute of Cytology of the Russian Academy of Science, 4 Tikhoretskiy Ave., Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, 194064

 Bezushko A.V. — ophthalmologist, e-mail: [email protected]

Dubovikov A.S. — сlinical resident, e-mail: [email protected]

Kulikov A.N. — Head of the Department of Ophthalmology, D. Med. Sc., e-mail: [email protected]

Churashov S.V. — Professor of the Department of Ophthalmology, D. Med. Sc., e-mail: [email protected]

Chernysh V.F. — Associate Professor of the Department of Ophthalmology, Cand. Med. Sc., e-mail: [email protected]

Blinova M.I. — Cand. Biol. Sc., senior research scientist, Laboratory of cell biology in culture, e-mail: [email protected]

Aleksandrova O.I. — junior research associate, Laboratory of cell biology in culture, e-mail: [email protected]

Suetov A.A. — ophthalmologist, Cand. Med. Sc., e-mail: [email protected]

Gavrilyuk I.O. — ophthalmologist, e-mail: [email protected]

 A promising treatment method for patients with limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) is the transplantation of cultured limbal epithelial stem cells (LESC) obtained from minimal biopsy samples in various carriers. To investigate the possibility of using cultured autologous LESC on the collagen scaffold (CS) to eliminate LSCD in the experiment. In 30 rabbits (60 eyes) the mechanical LSCD model was created. Animals were divided into 3 groups. The 1^st and the 2^nd were treatment groups, the 3^rd — the control group. In the 1^st group collagen scaffold (CS) with cultivated LESC was placed on denuded cornea twice with the 3-days interval, in the 2^nd group it was placed once. In the control group CS with no LESC was applied once. On the 90^th day transparency noticeably increased in the 1^st group in contradistinction to the 2^nd and control groups, where vascularization and opacification were sufficiently noticeable. According to impression cytology, epithelium with no goblet cells was found in the 1^st group in 90% of cases. Histological examination confirmed it. In the 2^nd group the presence of goblet cells was indicated in 50% of cases, in the control group goblet cells were indicated in all the animals. Double application of CS with cultured LESC proved to be effective in LSCD treatment in the experiment and can be recommended for limited clinical trials.

Key words: limbal epithelial stem cells, collagen scaffold, limbal deficiency.

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