Washington, Dec 9 : Umbilical stem cells may help recover lost vision for those with corneal disease, says a new study.

Winston Whei-Yang Kao and colleagues in the University of Cincinnati's (UC) opthalmalogy department found that transplanting human umbilical mesenchymal stem cells into mouse models, lacking the protein lumican, restored the transparency of cloudy and thin corneas.

Mesenchymal stem cells are "multi-potent" stem cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types. Lumican is a protein that controls the formation and maintenance of transparent corneas, a tissue over the front of the eyeball.

"Corneal transplantation is currently the only true cure for restoration of eyesight that may have been lost due to corneal scarring caused by infection, mechanical and chemical wounds and congenital defects of genetic mutations," Kao says.

"However, the number of donated corneas suitable for transplantation is decreasing as the number of individuals receiving refractive surgeries, like LASIK, increases."

"Worldwide, there is a shortage of suitable corneas for transplantation, and at the present time, there is no effective alternative procedure besides corneal transplantation to treat corneal blindness," he continues.

"There is a large need to develop alternative treatment regimens, one of which may be the transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells."

Researchers used mouse models that did not have the lumican gene, also known as lumican knock-out models. "Lumican knock-out models manifested thin and cloudy corneas," he says, according to an UC release.

"These findings have the potential to create new and better treatments and an improved quality of life for patients with vision loss due to corneal injury."

These findings were presented on Tuesday at the 49th annual meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology.(IANS)