System for tracking transplanted limbal epithelial stem cells in the treatment of corneal stem cell deficiency

J. Boadi; V. Sangwal; S. MacNeil; S. J. Matcher

doi:10.1117/12.2077921

2 March 2015 System for tracking transplanted limbal epithelial stem cells in the treatment of corneal stem cell deficiency

J. Boadi, V. Sangwal, S. MacNeil, S. J. Matcher

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9328, Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues XIII; 93281D (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2077921
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2015, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

The prevailing hypothesis for the existence and healing of the avascular corneal epithelium is that this layer of cells is continually produced by stem cells in the limbus and transported onto the cornea to mature into corneal epithelium. Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency (LSCD), in which the stem cell population is depleted, can lead to blindness. LSCD can be caused by chemical and thermal burns to the eye. A popular treatment, especially in emerging economies such as India, is the transplantation of limbal stem cells onto damaged limbus with hope of repopulating the region. Hence regenerating the corneal epithelium. In order to gain insights into the success rates of this treatment, new imaging technologies are needed in order to track the transplanted cells.

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is well known for its high resolution in vivo images of the retina. A custom OCT system has been built to image the corneal surface, to investigate the fate of transplanted limbal stem cells. We evaluate two methods to label and track transplanted cells: melanin labelling and magneto-labelling. To evaluate melanin labelling, stem cells are loaded with melanin and then transplanted onto a rabbit cornea denuded of its epithelium. The melanin displays strongly enhanced backscatter relative to normal cells. To evaluate magneto-labelling the stem cells are loaded with magnetic nanoparticles (20-30nm in size) and then imaged with a custom-built, magneto-motive OCT system.

Citation Download Citation

J. Boadi, V. Sangwal, S. MacNeil, and S. J. Matcher "System for tracking transplanted limbal epithelial stem cells in the treatment of corneal stem cell deficiency", Proc. SPIE 9328, Imaging, Manipulation, and Analysis of Biomolecules, Cells, and Tissues XIII, 93281D (2 March 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2077921

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