Researchers use stem cells to a ‘living lens’ in patient’s eye
10 Mar 2016
Researchers have shown that it is possible to cure cataracts, using a patient's own stem cells to regrow a 'living lens' in their eye, a procedure which restores eye sight in just three months.
In a remarkable success, surgeons were able to reverse blindness in 12 infants born with congenital cataracts with the removal of the damaged lens and stimulating nearby cells to repair the damage.
The research could pave the way for millions of older people to have their sight restored using their own cells.
The current treatment of the conditions involves insertion of an artificial plastic lens into the eye, but this could lead to infections, inflammation and a night time halo effect in vision.
Babies run a higher risk from surgery as the eye is still developing. However, using the new technology scientists at the University of California, San Diego, showed that cataracts could be treated without a transplant. They now have plans for working on age-related cataracts which occurs when clumps of protein build up over time, creating a clouding effect.
"An ultimate goal of stem cell research is to turn on the regenerative potential of one's own stem cells for tissue and organ repair and disease therapy," said Dr Kang Zhang, chief of Ophthalmic Genetics and founding director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, The Telegraph reported in its online edition telegraph.co.uk.
Meanwhile, according to research published yesterday, people suffering vision loss might one day have new corneas and lenses grown from their own cells, and be spared the invasive transplants required today.
Research teams published papers in the journal Nature, in which one team said they managed to engineer corneas from stem cells in the lab, while another regenerated lenses inside the human eye.
"These two studies illustrate the remarkable regenerative and therapeutic potential of stem cells," wrote Julie Daniels of the University College London Institute of Opthalmology, who analysed the work in a paper also carried by Nature.
