Regional immunosuppression for corneal transplantation

失明给患者带来了重大的身体、情感和经济限制和困难。角膜移植是一种广为接受的手术治疗方法，用于治疗因角膜混浊（眼睛前方的透明窗口）引起的视力障碍。在征得捐赠者家属的许可后，从最近去世的人身上取出用于移植的角膜。不幸的是，很大一部分角膜移植失败了，因为它们被认为是外来的，并受到接受者的排斥。一旦角膜移植失败，它就不再对光透明。目前正在开发许多新的干预措施来降低角膜移植排斥反应的发生率，但目前尚不确定如何将这些干预措施准确地交付给患者。本申请中描述的研究旨在发现如何最好地靶向治疗药物和干预措施，以防止角膜移植排斥。克服不需要的免疫反应将使角膜移植的效果提高百分之三十。

Blindness exerts major physical, emotional and economic constraints and hardship upon the sufferer. Corneal transplantation is a well-accepted surgical treatment for visual impairment caused by opacification of the cornea, the transparent window at the front of the eye. Corneas for transplantation are retrieved from people who have recently died, after permission has been sought from the donor's family. Unfortunately, a significant proportion of corneal transplants fail because they are recognized as foreign, and undergo rejection by the recipient. Once a corneal graft has failed, it is no longer transparent to light. A number of novel interventions are being developed to reduce the incidence of corneal graft rejection, but at present it is uncertain exactly how these should be delivered to the patient. The research described in this application is designed to discover how therapeutic agents and interventions can best be targeted, to prevent corneal graft rejection. Overcoming an unwanted immune response would improve the outcome of corneal transplantation by as much as thirty percent.