REVIEW ARTICLE


Perspective of Future Potent Therapies for Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy



Naoki Okumura, Ryousuke Hayashi, Noriko Koizumi*
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Life and Medical Sciences, Doshisha University, Kyotanabe, Japan


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Creative Commons License
© 2018 Okumura et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Life and Medical Sciences, Doshisha University, 1-3 Tatara Miyokodani, Kyotanabe Kyoto, Japan, Tel: +81-774-65-6125; E-mail: nkoizumi@mail.doshisha.ac.jp


Abstract

Background:

Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy (FECD) is a progressive disease that affects the corneal endothelium in both eyes. Recent studies have identified a novel genetic basis for FECD, and basic research findings have provided evidence for its underlying pathophysiology. Since its first description by Ernst Fuchs in 1910, the only therapeutic choice has been corneal transplantation using donor corneas. However, accumulating evidence suggests that a change in this “rule” may be imminent.

Conclusions:

This article reviews the current knowledge of the genetics and pathophysiology of FECD, and it introduces some potent therapeutic modalities that show promise as new treatments for this disorder.

Keywords: FECD, ECM, Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy, TCF4, SNP, ICD3.