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Cell transplantation can be a solution to blindness

27/Sep/2006: Cell transplantation can provide vision to elderly blind people, according to a new study carried out by researchers at Advanced Cell Technology, Massachusetts, and University of Utah Health Science Centre.

In this study embryonic stem cells were used to treat rats suffering from a disease comparable to macular degeneration in humans. Macular degeneration is a condition where the light sensing cells of macula lutea (a yellow spot at the centre of the retina in the human eye) stops working. Macular degeneration is the main reason behind blindness in people of over 50 years of age, in Unites States.

Embryonic stem cells are derived from the inner cell mass of blastocyst (a structure formed in the early stages of cell division and cell differentiation during the formation of an embryo). When stimulated, stem cells can develop in to nearly 200 cell types in an adult body, as they are ‘pluripotent’ (a cell that is able to differentiate in to many cell types).

The researchers involved in this study, cultured Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) from the embryonic stem cells of humans. Retinal Pigment Epithelium supports the light sensing cells in the macula lutae.

The cultured RPE was transplanted in to the macula of a special breed of blind rats suffering from macular degeneration. Researchers later found that the transplantation restored the ability of the rats to view minute details to an extent 70% of that of normal rates.

The findings of this study are published in the Journal ‘Cloning and Stem Cells’. The team involved in this research is hopeful that this treatment can be tried on humans within the next two years, if further studies on animals provide fruitful results.

K Siva

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