Cell and Gene Therapy in Equine Ocular Disease

Equine ocular disease is common and often challenging to treat using traditional methods. This has led to the development of new therapies. Like human medicine, veterinary medicine is adopting cellular and gene therapy as innovative approaches. Equine ocular disease is a particularly promising area for these techniques. Notably, immune-mediated diseases (such as immune-mediated keratitis and equine recurrent uveitis), ulcerative keratitis, and infectious ocular diseases are of interest. Several ocular gene therapy products are approved for use in humans, and more are currently being researched in veterinary medicine. In veterinary practice, cell therapy mainly involves multipotent stromal cells or mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which are also widely studied in human medicine. This review aims to summarize the status of cell and gene therapy in equine ocular disease and provide background on the principles behind these treatments, as well as insights from human medicine. Although many in vitro studies and case series exist, a significant research gap remains. Despite growing clinical use, there are limited controlled in vivo studies assessing their safety, routes of administration, or effectiveness.