Project: The expression of Wound Healing Markers in Response to Corneal Wounding
At present, refractive error can be corrected with contact lenses and spectacles, or with surgical procedures such as laser refractive surgery, corneal and intraocular implantable devices.
Contact lenses provide clear vision without glasses and in some wearers contact lenses may even provide better vision compared to glasses. However, despite the development of new lens designs, new lens materials, and a wide range of lens care systems, contact-lens-related dry eye or dryness along with eye soreness are still the most frequent symptoms among contact lens wearers. They contribute significantly to the decision to abandon contact lens wear, and to try other forms of vision correction such as laser refractive surgery.
Laser refractive surgery can deliver permanent improvement of vision, and it eliminates the dryness symptoms related to contact lens wear. However reduced corneal sensitivity and a decreased blinking rate in the early wound healing stages following surgery often results in a reduction of the tear film, again causing dry eye symptoms.
An attractive alternative to contact lenses and refractive surgery is a corneal implantable contact lens, or onlay. A synthetic lens is surgically placed under the corneal epithelium, which corrects refractive error by altering the corneal curvature. It causes no permanent structural damage to the cornea and would avoid dry eye symptoms.
To date, the optimal method for surgical insertion of a synthetic onlay remains to be determined, and the clinical and histological postoperative interactions between the corneal epithelium and stroma are not well understood.
Andrea’s PhD work focuses on a comparison of corneal wound healing processes following refractive surgical procedures with potential for the insertion of an onlay. Matrix-Metalloproteinase (MMPs) in the tears (ELISA and gelatin zymography) and corneal tissue (immunohistochemistry) is being used to monitor the wound healing processes after debridement and Butterfly-LASIK in a feline model. MMPs are zinc-dependent proteinases that affect and regulate wound healing, tissue remodelling, and pathogenic processes. They play a role in the turnover and degradation of extracellular-matrix proteins, and MMPs also process, activate and deactivate various soluble factors.
Andrea is originally from Falkensee in Germany and graduated from the Academic Vocational School of Ophthalmic Optics and Precise technique in Berlin as an optician and later from the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin with a Diploma in Optometry. In fulfilment of her Diploma in Optometry, Andrea carried out her Diploma thesis entitled “Matrix-Metalloproteinase-9 and Tissue Inhibitor of Matrix-Metalloproteinase-1 during Orthokeratology” at the Vision CRC. Andrea commenced full-time study as an international PhD candidate in July 2006.
Supervisor: Dr Deborah F Sweeney (Vision CRC)
Co-Supervisor: Dr Meg Evans (CSIRO), Dr Qian Garrett (Institute for Eye Research)
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