Lab-Grown Lenses Could Help Treat Cataracts

A team of scientists at Anglia Ruskin University, together with colleagues from the University of Osaka in Japan and Cardiff University, has grown tiny lens-like structures from human stem cells for the first time, creating a possible new route toward treating cataracts, one of the world’s leading causes of blindness. 

These so-called mini lenses closely mirror the lens found inside the human eye and could eventually help scientists understand how to prevent or treat the condition.

Cataracts develop when proteins within the eye’s lens become damaged or clump together, clouding the lens and stopping it from properly focusing light onto the retina. The condition is one of the leading causes of vision loss and blindness worldwide, affecting an estimated 94 million people, and at present can only be treated through surgery.

The paper, published in npj Regenerative Medicine, describes how the team started with human induced pluripotent stem cells and devised a growth method that prompted the cells to organize themselves into lens-like structures.

These lens organoids display many of the defining features of a real human lens, including the proteins that keep the lens transparent, structures resembling the protective lens capsule that surrounds it, and the highly organized fiber cells found inside natural lenses. 

The researchers also observed that cells from these mini lenses were able to generate new lens-like structures of their own, suggesting the system may replicate some of the natural regenerative processes involved in lens development. 

According to lead authorr Barbara Pierscionek, “This is a major step forward as it is very difficult to obtain and study human eye lens tissue while it is developing. We’ve now successfully grown miniature human lens tissue from stem cells in the laboratory and identified the conditions needed for it to closely resemble a natural human lens.”

“As the technology develops, these lab-grown tissues could help us test new medicines, better understand diseases that affect vision, and potentially contribute to the development of future regenerative treatments.”