GoKawiilPia Cosma at the Centre for Genomic Regulation at the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology in Spain and her colleagues have spent years developing their device. The Eye-in-a-Care-Box (ECaBox), as they call it, delivers an oxygen-rich supply of fluid through the artery that normally supplies the eye with blood.
The eye itself sits on a “bed,” and excess fluids are drained away. And while the device itself is sealed to maintain a specific temperature and pressure, a clear window on its side allows researchers to study and image the eye while it’s inside.
Cosma and her colleagues started experimenting with pig eyes, which are anatomically similar to human eyes but easier to get hold of (the team got theirs from a local slaughterhouse).
Pig eyes that are kept at room temperature outside of the device start to degenerate pretty quickly. The team found that cells in the eye shrank, and the eyes started to lose their structure. Cooling the organs didn’t help preserve them, either—the eyes degenerated within 24 hours even when they were kept at 4°C (39°F).
But eyes kept in the EcABox fared much better. 24 hours later, tests suggested the prefused eyes were “significantly more viable” than eyes that hadn’t been maintained in the device.
The perfused eyes also seemed to be able to respond to light, suggesting they might technically be able to see if they were transplanted. Untreated pig eyes lost this ability as soon as they were removed from the animal. But it came back after about 15 minutes of perfusion, according to the scientists behind the work. A few of the treated eyes kept going for 10 hours or more.