International Review of Ophthalmology

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Progress of limbal stem cell transplantation for limbal stem cell deficiency

Wan Xichen, Le Qihua   

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 200031
  • Received:2020-02-09 Online:2020-08-22 Published:2020-09-01
  • Contact: Le Qihua, Email: qihuale_eent@163.com E-mail:qihuale_eent@163.com
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China (81970767); Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (19ZR1408200)

Abstract: Healthy limbal stem cells are essential for maintaining the transparency and integrity of the corneal epithelium. Severe damage of limbal stem cells and/or limbal stem cell niche caused by a variety of reasons can lead to limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD). Limbal stem cell transplantation, one of the effective treatments for LSCD, including conjunctival limbal autograft transplantation (CLAU), living related conjunctival limbal allograft transplantation(lr-CLAL), keratolimbal allograft (KLAL); ex vivo cultivated limbal epithelial autograft ( EVLAU), ex vivo cultivated limbal epithelial allograft (EVLAL); simple limbal epithelial transplantation (SLET), allogeneic SLET (allo-SLET), could maximally restore the function of limbal stem cells. With the improvement of surgical technique in recent years, the surgery-related complications gradually decrease and the graft survival prolongs, which improves the prognosis of LSCD greatly.