The newest
addition to human anatomy is just 15 microns thick, but its discovery will make
eye surgery safer and simpler. Harminder Dua, a professor at the University of
Nottingham, recently found a new layer in the human cornea, and he's calling it
(can you guess?) Dua's layer.
Dua's layer
sits at the back of the cornea, which previously had only five known layers.
Dua and his colleagues discovered the new body part by injecting air into the
corneas of eyes that had been donated for research and using an electron
microscope to scan each separated layer.
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| The human eye, now slightly less mysterious Petr Novák via Wikimedia Commons |
The
researchers now believe that a tear in Dua's layer is the cause of corneal
hydrops, a disorder that leads to fluid buildup in the cornea. According to
Dua, knowledge of the new layer could dramatically improve outcomes for
patients undergoing corneal grafts and transplants.
“This is a
major discovery that will mean that ophthalmology textbooks will literally need
to be re-written," Dua says. “From a
clinical perspective, there are many diseases that affect the back of the
cornea which clinicians across the world are already beginning to relate to the
presence, absence or tear in this layer.”
This is the
conclusion from that research;
“There exists
a novel, well-defined, acellular, strong layer in the pre-Descemet's (Dua's
layer) cornea. This separates along the last row of keratocytes in most cases
performed with the BB technique. Its recognition will have considerable impact
on posterior corneal surgery and the understanding of corneal biomechanics and
posterior corneal pathology such as acute hydrops, Descematocele and
pre-Descemet's dystrophies.”
The study
appears in the journal Ophthalmology.(source)
