New Subretinal Stem Cell Treatment for Eye Disease

Ridgefield, CT (PRWEB) September 1, 2010
A new stem cell therapy is now available to eye patients using subretinal placement of adult stem cells. Patients with more severe eye problems may now have the opportunity to improve their sight and gain useful vision.

Dr Steven Levy is pleased to announce that The XCell-Center in Germany has begun a new treatment for eye patients using subretinal placement of adult stem cells for ophthalmic disease. Initial patients included an individual with Stargardts Disease, a type of hereditary retinopathy, and a patient with Age Related Macular Degeneration or AMD.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4427444.htm

Retina Created From Human Embryonic Stem Cells

UC Irvine scientists have created an eight-layer, early stage retina from human embryonic stem cells, the first three-dimensional tissue structure to be made from stem cells.

It also marks the first step toward the development of transplant-ready retinas to treat eye disorders such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration that affect millions.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/190124.php

Stem Cells Restore Sight in Mouse Model of Retinitis Pigmentosa

An international research team led by Columbia University Medical Center successfully used mouse embryonic stem cells to replace diseased retinal cells and restore sight in a mouse model of retinitis pigmentosa. This strategy could potentially become a new treatment for retinitis pigmentosa, a leading cause of blindness that affects approximately one in 3,000 to 4,000 people, or 1.5 million people worldwide.

“This research is promising because we successfully turned stem cells into retinal cells, and these retinal cells restored vision in a mouse model of retinitis pigmentosa,” said Stephen Tsang, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology, pathology and cell biology, Columbia University Medical Center, and lead author of the paper. “The transplanted cells not only looked like retinal cells, but they functioned like them, too.”

In Dr. Tsang’s study, sight was restored in one-fourth of the mice that received the stem cells. However, complications of benign tumors and retinal detachments were seen in some of the mice, so Dr. Tsang and colleagues will optimize techniques to decrease the incidence of these complications in human embryonic stem cells before testing in human patients can begin.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100224132737.htm

Eye Cells from Stem Cells

Several types of retina cells have been created from stem cells, according to a study published online yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“We’re able to produce significant numbers of photoreceptor cells and other retinal cell types…which are lost in many disorders,” Jason Meyer, a research scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said in a prepared statement. The findings “could serve as a foundation for unlocking the mechanisms that produce human retinal cells,” he noted.

The team relied on both embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells—made from cultured adult skin cells—to create the retinal cells. The researchers hope that by using the parallel methods of both embryonic and iPS cells, they can also shed some light on the differences between the two.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery_directory.cfm?photo_id=52A3520F-CBEA-EA33-E32D1974B31C0D63

Gene Therapy Creates a New Fovea

Twelve months after receiving an experimental gene therapy for a rare, inherited form of blindness, a patient discovered that she could read an illuminated clock in the family car for the first time in her life. The unexpected findings suggest that the brain can adapt to new sensory capacity, even in people who have been blind since birth.

The patient, who remains anonymous, suffers from a disease called Leber congenital amaurosis, in which an abnormal protein in sufferers’ photoreceptors severely impairs their sensitivity to light. “It’s like wearing several pairs of sunglasses in a dark room,” says Artur Cideciyan, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who oversaw the trial.

At the start of the study, physicians injected a gene encoding a functional copy of the protein into a small part of one eye–about eight-to-nine millimeters in diameter–of three patients, all in their twenties and blind since birth. In preliminary results published last year, Cideciyan and colleagues found that all three patients showed substantial improvements in their ability to detect light three months after treatment.

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23239/