A new technique uses electricity to reshape the cornea, offering a surgery-free alternative to LASIK. In rabbit tests, it corrected vision quickly and safely.
Credit: Shutterstock
Scientists may have found a way to correct vision without surgery, lasers, or cutting.
Using tiny electrical currents and custom contact lenses, researchers reshaped rabbit corneas in just a minute — a process that could one day replace LASIK.
Millions of Americans Have Altered Vision
Millions of Americans live with vision problems that range from mild blurriness to complete blindness. While glasses and contact lenses are common solutions, many people prefer not to rely on them. As a result, hundreds of thousands choose corrective eye surgery each year, most often LASIK — a laser procedure designed to reshape the cornea and improve eyesight. Although widely used, LASIK can sometimes lead to unwanted side effects. To address this, researchers are experimenting with ways to reshape the cornea without cutting, and their early tests in animal tissue show promise.
Michael Hill, a chemistry professor at Occidental College, shared his team’s findings during the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) fall meeting.
How LASIK Reshapes the Eye
The cornea, a clear dome-shaped layer at the front of the eye, bends light so it focuses on the retina. This signal is then sent to the brain and turned into a visual image. When the cornea is irregularly shaped, light does not focus correctly, causing blurry vision.
LASIK corrects this by using highly specialized lasers to remove very thin layers of corneal tissue, altering its shape. The method is generally considered safe, but cutting into the cornea weakens its structure and carries some risks. As Hill explains, “LASIK is just a fancy way of doing traditional surgery. It’s still carving tissue — it’s just carving with a laser.”
Credit: Daniel Kim and Mimi Chen
The Accidental Discovery of Electromechanical Reshaping
But what if the cornea could be reshaped without the need for any incisions?
This is what Hill and collaborator Brian Wong are exploring through a process known as electromechanical reshaping (EMR). “The whole effect was discovered by accident,” explains Wong, a professor and surgeon at the University of California, Irvine. “I was looking at living tissues as moldable materials and discovered this whole process of chemical modification.”
In the body, the shapes of many collagen-containing tissues, including corneas, are held in place by attractions of oppositely charged components. These tissues contain a lot of water, so applying an electric potential to them lowers the tissue’s pH, making it more acidic. By altering the pH, the rigid attractions within the tissue are loosened and make the shape malleable. When the original pH is restored, the tissue is locked into the new shape.
Previously, the researchers used EMR to reshape cartilage-rich rabbit ears, as well as alter scars and skin in pigs. But one collagen-rich tissue that they were eager to explore was the cornea.
Platinum Contact Lenses as Electrodes
In this work, the team constructed specialized, platinum “contact lenses” that provided a template for the corrected shape of the cornea, then placed each over a rabbit eyeball in a saline solution meant to mimic natural tears. The platinum lens acted as an electrode to generate a precise pH change when the researchers applied a small electric potential to the lens. After about a minute, the cornea’s curvature conformed to the shape of the lens — about the same amount of time LASIK takes, but with fewer steps, less expensive equipment and no incisions.
They repeated this setup on 12 separate rabbit eyeballs, 10 of which were treated as if they had myopia, or nearsightedness. In all the “myopic” eyeballs, the treatment dialed in the targeted focusing power of the eye, which would correspond to improved vision. The cells in the eyeball survived the treatment because the researchers carefully controlled the pH gradient. Additionally, in other experiments, the team demonstrated that their technique might be able to reverse some chemical-caused cloudiness to the cornea — a condition that is currently only treatable through a complete corneal transplant.
Early Promise and Next Steps
Though this initial work is promising, the researchers emphasize that it is in its very early stages. Next up is what Wong describes as, “the long march through animal studies that are detailed and precise,” including tests on a living rabbit rather than just its eyeball. They also plan to determine the types of vision correction possible with EMR, such as near- and far-sightedness and astigmatism. Though the next steps are planned, uncertainties in the team’s scientific funding have put them on hold. “There’s a long road between what we’ve done and the clinic. But, if we get there, this technique is widely applicable, vastly cheaper, and potentially even reversible,” concludes Hill.
The Accidental Discovery of Electromechanical Reshaping
But what if the cornea could be reshaped without the need for any incisions?
This is what Hill and collaborator Brian Wong are exploring through a process known as electromechanical reshaping (EMR). “The whole effect was discovered by accident,” explains Wong, a professor and surgeon at the University of California, Irvine. “I was looking at living tissues as moldable materials and discovered this whole process of chemical modification.”
In the body, the shapes of many collagen-containing tissues, including corneas, are held in place by attractions of oppositely charged components. These tissues contain a lot of water, so applying an electric potential to them lowers the tissue’s pH, making it more acidic. By altering the pH, the rigid attractions within the tissue are loosened and make the shape malleable. When the original pH is restored, the tissue is locked into the new shape.
Previously, the researchers used EMR to reshape cartilage-rich rabbit ears, as well as alter scars and skin in pigs. But one collagen-rich tissue that they were eager to explore was the cornea.
Platinum Contact Lenses as Electrodes
In this work, the team constructed specialized, platinum “contact lenses” that provided a template for the corrected shape of the cornea, then placed each over a rabbit eyeball in a saline solution meant to mimic natural tears. The platinum lens acted as an electrode to generate a precise pH change when the researchers applied a small electric potential to the lens. After about a minute, the cornea’s curvature conformed to the shape of the lens — about the same amount of time LASIK takes, but with fewer steps, less expensive equipment and no incisions.
They repeated this setup on 12 separate rabbit eyeballs, 10 of which were treated as if they had myopia, or nearsightedness. In all the “myopic” eyeballs, the treatment dialed in the targeted focusing power of the eye, which would correspond to improved vision. The cells in the eyeball survived the treatment because the researchers carefully controlled the pH gradient. Additionally, in other experiments, the team demonstrated that their technique might be able to reverse some chemical-caused cloudiness to the cornea — a condition that is currently only treatable through a complete corneal transplant.
Early Promise and Next Steps
Though this initial work is promising, the researchers emphasize that it is in its very early stages. Next up is what Wong describes as, “the long march through animal studies that are detailed and precise,” including tests on a living rabbit rather than just its eyeball. They also plan to determine the types of vision correction possible with EMR, such as near- and far-sightedness and astigmatism. Though the next steps are planned, uncertainties in the team’s scientific funding have put them on hold. “There’s a long road between what we’ve done and the clinic. But, if we get there, this technique is widely applicable, vastly cheaper, and potentially even reversible,” concludes Hill.
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