A new and exciting study in the field of stem cell research has found that injecting stem cells into the eyes of blind people can help them restore their sight.
Scientists used human Embryonic Stem Cell transplants to treat severe vision loss in 18 patients with different forms of macular degeneration, according to the study published in The Lancet. Tests showed a substantial improvement in 10 of those patients, with eight able to read an additional 15 letters on an eye chart in their first year after treatment.
More than half of the patients regained some of their sight after getting the procedure, which uses stem cells to recreate a type of cell in the retina that supports light-receiving photoreceptors that are lost over time and eventually leads to blindness.
Until now, no effective treatments existed for either (AMD) or Stargardt’s macular dystrophy, both of which are caused by the loss of photoreceptor cells in the retina.
“Our results suggest the safety and promise of stem cells to alter progressive vision loss in people with degenerative diseases and mark an exciting step towards using embryonic stem cells as a safe source of cells for the treatment of various medical disorders,” said Dr. Steven Schwartz, an author of the study conducted at the Jules Stein Eye Institute in Los Angeles.
Comments