Functional lacrimal gland regeneration by transplantation of a bioengineered organ germ

Masatoshi Hirayama, Miho Ogawa, Masamitsu Oshima, Yurie Sekine, Kentaro Ishida, Kentaro Yamashita, Kazutaka Ikeda, Shigeto Shimmura, Tetsuya Kawakita, Kazuo Tsubota and Takashi Tsuji ()
Additional contact information
Masatoshi Hirayama: School of Medicine, Keio University
Miho Ogawa: Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science
Masamitsu Oshima: Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science
Yurie Sekine: Graduate School of Industrial Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science
Kentaro Ishida: Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science
Kentaro Yamashita: Graduate School of Industrial Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science
Kazutaka Ikeda: Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University
Shigeto Shimmura: School of Medicine, Keio University
Tetsuya Kawakita: School of Medicine, Keio University
Kazuo Tsubota: School of Medicine, Keio University
Takashi Tsuji: Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The lacrimal gland has a multifaceted role in maintaining a homeostatic microenvironment for a healthy ocular surface via tear secretion. Dry-eye disease, which is caused by lacrimal gland dysfunction, is one of the most prevalent eye diseases that cause corneal epithelial damage and results in significant loss of vision and a reduction in the quality of life. Here we demonstrate orthotopic transplantation of bioengineered lacrimal gland germs into adult mice with an extra-orbital lacrimal gland defect, a mouse model that mimics the corneal epithelial damage caused by lacrimal gland dysfunction. The bioengineered lacrimal gland germs and harderian gland germs both develop in vivo and achieve sufficient physiological functionality, including tear production in response to nervous stimulation and ocular surface protection. This study demonstrates the potential for bioengineered organ replacement to functionally restore the lacrimal gland.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3497 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3497

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3497

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().