Surgeons at Mass Eye and Ear have replaced the ocular surface of four patients who each experienced chemical burns to one eye by using their own stem cells taken from the other healthy eye, in a technique known as “cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell transplantation” (CALEC). These four cases, all part of an ongoing clinical trial supported by the National Eye Institute of the NIH, represent the first procedures of their kind to occur in the United States.The CALEC technique was developed by researchers at Mass Eye and Ear, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The trial is led by principal investigator Dr. Ula V. Jurkunas, a cornea and refractive surgeon at Mass Eye and Ear.
A small biopsy containing stem cells from the patient’s healthy eye that had been taken two weeks earlier was transported to the Connell and O’Reilly Families Cell Manipulation Core Facility at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, under the direction of Dr. Jerome Ritz, where cornea (limbal) stem cells were expanded and grown on a membrane substrate. Once the cells had grown to cover the membrane and the graft was ready for transplant, Dr. Jurkunas performed extensive scar tissue removal and transplanted the CALEC onto the cornea.