全球首例由重编程干细胞制成的角膜进行的移植手术！据Nature杂志报道（Woman is first to receive cornea made from ‘reprogrammed’ stem cells）一名日本女性成为世界上首个使用重编程干细胞修复角膜的人。

角膜是覆盖并保护眼睛的一层透明层结构，若修复角膜的干细胞丢失则会使视力模糊并可能导致失明。患有角膜受损的患者常会使用去世捐赠者的眼角膜组织来进行治疗。研究者将供体皮肤细胞进行了重编程，将其转化为胚胎样状态的细胞（embryonic-like state，这种重编程的细胞就可以转化为其他类型的细胞），并进一步使其转化为角膜细胞。接受移植手术一个月以来，患者眼睛角膜清晰，且视力也有所改善。

A Japanese woman in her forties has become the first person in the world to have her cornea repaired using reprogrammed stem cells. At a press conference on 29 August, ophthalmologist Kohji Nishida from Osaka University, Japan, said the woman has a disease in which the stem cells that repair the cornea, a transparent layer that covers and protects the eye, are lost. The condition makes vision blurry and can lead to blindness.

How iPS cells changed the world

To treat the woman, Nishida says his team created sheets of corneal cells from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. These are made by reprogramming adult skin cells from a donor into an embryonic-like state from which they can transform into other cell types, such as corneal cells. Nishida said that the woman’s cornea remained clear and her vision had improved since the transplant a month ago.

Currently people with damaged or diseased corneas are generally treated using tissue from donors who have died, but there is a long waiting list for such tissue in Japan. Japan has been ahead of the curve in approving the clinical use of iPS cells, which were discovered by stem-cell biologist Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, who won a Nobel prize for the work. Japanese physicians have also used iPS cells to treat spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease and another eye disease.

The Japanese health ministry gave Nishida permission to try the procedure on four people. He is planning the next operation for later this year and hopes to have the procedure in the clinic in five years.