Corneal transplantation ­preventing transplant rejection

This research was completed on 30 September 2004

Project Leader	Dr Andrew J T George MA PhD MRCPath and Mr Daniel F P Larkin MD
Location	Department of Immunology, Hammersmith Hospital in conjunction with Moorfields Eye Hospital, London.
Grant awarded	26 October 2000
Start date	1 October 2001
End date	30 September 2004
Grant amount	£124,279.00
Grant code	SP3683

Corneal grafting is the most common form of transplantation and a major way of treating and reversing blindness, with 60-80,000 operations performed worldwide each year. About a quarter of all these grafts fail within 5 years, and in some groups of patients (such as children or those with eye infections) the majority are rapidly rejected. This team is working to prevent such corneal rejection by using molecules which are normally used by viruses to protect themselves from the immune system. (The molecules confuse the immune system and prevent it from attacking the virus.) The aim of this study is to cause the corneas to make these particular molecules, in order to similarly confuse the immune system and thereby stop it from attacking the graft.