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. 2018 Jun;7(12):e1800152.
doi: 10.1002/adhm.201800152. Epub 2018 Apr 26.

Contact Lenses for Color Blindness

Abdel-Rahman Badawy  1 , Muhammad Umair Hassan  1 , Mohamed Elsherif  1 , Zubair Ahmed  2 , Ali K Yetisen  3 , Haider Butt  1
Affiliations

Contact Lenses for Color Blindness

Abdel-Rahman Badawy et al. Adv Healthc Mater. 2018 Jun.

Abstract

Color vision deficiency (color blindness) is an inherited genetic ocular disorder. While no cure for this disorder currently exists, several methods can be used to increase the color perception of those affected. One such method is the use of color filtering glasses which are based on Bragg filters. While these glasses are effective, they are high cost, bulky, and incompatible with other vision correction eyeglasses. In this work, a rhodamine derivative is incorporated in commercial contact lenses to filter out the specific wavelength bands (≈545-575 nm) to correct color vision blindness. The biocompatibility assessment of the dyed contact lenses in human corneal fibroblasts and human corneal epithelial cells shows no toxicity and cell viability remains at 99% after 72 h. This study demonstrates the potential of the dyed contact lenses in wavelength filtering and color vision deficiency management.

Keywords: color blindness; color vision deficiency; contact lenses; ocular diseases; vision correction.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Color perception in CVD. a) The anatomy of the eye and cone cells. b) The activation percentages for the different types of CVD for 510 nm. c) A visual representation of what is seen by individuals looking at the same image with different color vision abilities. d) Colors perceived by individuals having different types of CVD.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Transmission spectra of dyed contact lenses. a) The effect on transmission by varying dip time. The inset shows photographic images of the color of the lenses at the specified dip times. b) The dip stability test showing the change in transmission with respect to time. c) The drop‐cast method and its stability with inset showing the photographs taken after specified intervals of time. d) Transmission spectra of pHEMA and commercial soft contact lenses when dipped into the dye. e) The microscopic images of the cross sections taken under different viewing conditions. Scale bars = 100 µm.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Optimization of rhodamine dye concentrations. a) The effect of varying dip concentrations. b) The relationship between dye concentration used and absorption. c) Images of the contact lenses dipped in different dye concentrations.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Dye diffusion from the contact lenses. The effect of time on the lenses when dipped into a storage solution with a) no added dye, b) 20 µL of equal concentration dye, and c) 20 µL of concentration dye (20 wt%). d–f) Images of the contact lenses corresponding to the graphs shown in (a)–(c), respectively. g) Change in the color of the storage solution at the beginning and end of each experiment.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Dyed contact lens in PBS solution. a) The change in transmission peaks of the dyed contact lens when dipped in PBS solution as a function of time. b) Photographs of the change in the color of the dyed contact lens when dipped PBS solution. The change in the color of PBS solution is shown in the last two images.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Cell viability after 72 h exposure to dyed lenses. 5 × 103 HCF and HCEC were incubated in six‐well tissue culture plates in DMEM + 10% FCS for 72 h at 37 °C and 5% CO2. The MTT assay reagent (0.5 mg mL−1) was added to each well and the samples were incubated for 4 h in dark. The medium was then removed and precipitates were resuspended in DMSO and measured on a plate reader set at 570 nm. Each experiment was performed in triplicates.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Rhodamine derivative (Atto 565) and its incorporation into contact lenses. a) The absorption and emission spectra of the dye. b) The chemical structure of the Atto 565 dye. Schematics of the d) drop method and e) dip method. f) The dyed contact lens on an artificial eye model.
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