According to a survey of US members of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), the major prohibitory factor in the use of human eye tissue is lack of availability of tissue meeting stringent criteria. The survey’s conductor, Dr Christine Curcio of ARVO’s Research Tissue Acquisition Working Group (RTAWG), found that only cost exceeded this factor among those surveyed.
Respondents also indicated that local eye banks are the most common tissue source, although most investigators use multiple tissue sources, including remote eye banks to acquire adequate human eye tissue needed for research.
The availability of human eye tissue for research has been severely impacted by federal regulations and state laws enacted over the last decade, and some individual eye bank practices may be of importance on a local level (e.g., laws prohibiting medical examiners from releasing eye tissue in cases of violent or suspicious death).
The RTAWG believes that the decline in human research tissue may be managed in the short term by researchers working closely with eye banks and other providers, communicating on a regular basis, and clarifying their experimental needs and expectations.
“Nowhere do impediments to obtaining human eyes for research have more impact than in the effort to understand age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of new vision loss in the elderly,” said Dr Curcio. “Macular degeneration, an advanced form of which now has treatment options, still lacks a laboratory animal model that displays the full range of pathology typifying the human disorder. Thus, human tissues are particularly critical.”