Results from a clinical trial published in The Lancet show that injecting human stem cells into the retinas of two legally blind patients improved their vision.
Although the results are preliminary, patients reported no negative side effects. Researchers injected 50,000 retinal pigment epithelium cells, derived from human stem cells, into the retinas of an elderly woman with dry age-related macular degeneration and a woman in her 50s with Stargardt macular dystrophy, a rare inherited disease.
Four months after treatment, both women reported improvement in vision and did not report any negative side effects. In some animal trials, animals given cells derived from human stem cells developed tumors and abnormal growths.
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Although the results are preliminary, patients reported no negative side effects. Researchers injected 50,000 retinal pigment epithelium cells, derived from human stem cells, into the retinas of an elderly woman with dry age-related macular degeneration and a woman in her 50s with Stargardt macular dystrophy, a rare inherited disease.
Four months after treatment, both women reported improvement in vision and did not report any negative side effects. In some animal trials, animals given cells derived from human stem cells developed tumors and abnormal growths.
Related Articles on Ophthalmology:
Wilson Offers New Ophthalmic Products
SUNY Downstate Receives Research Grant to Study Blindness Prevention
FDA Approves Carl Zeiss Meditec's Cirrus HD-OCT for Dry AMD and Glaucoma