Potential corneal nerve regeneration treatment

Researchers at the University College London (UCL) Institute of Ophthalmology have found that the protein VEGF188 improves the rate of corneal nerve regeneration after an eye injury.

This finding suggested that the application of eye drops containing only VEGF188 could aid nerve regeneration without any associated over-growth of blood vessels.

Clinical fellow at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology Franziska Bucher, who carried out the research, said: ‘We found that VEGF188 is both necessary and sufficient for the nerve regeneration in the cornea following injury to the eye surface. This finding opens the door to developing a new treatment for patients with serious corneal wounds, because healing corneal nerves is a key step to healing the entire cornea.’