GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PORCINE CORNEAS FOR HUMAN TRANSPLANTATION

• Grant number: 23/15538-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: December 01, 2023
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Silvano Mario Attilio Raia
• Grantee: Heloisa Moraes do Nascimento Salomão
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/11872-5 - Science for Development Center in Xenotransplantation, AP.CCD

Abstract

Corneal diseases are the fourth leading cause of blindness globally. Visual rehabilitation of advanced corneal opacity requires keratoplasty, which have several drawbacks, such as the risk of immune-mediated rejection and the shortage of high-quality donor corneas. The national and global waiting lists for keratoplasty currently exceed 20 thousand and 12 million patients, respectively. The porcine cornea has anatomical, optical and biomechanical similarities with the human cornea. Thus, the development of genetically modified pigs and the possibility of using their corneas in xenotransplants have the potential to increase the supply of tissues for human transplantation. For future safe clinical application of corneas from genetically engineered pigs, it is critical to evaluate their optical, histological, and biomechanical properties, as well as the in vitro and in vivo immune response to corneas.