“Latest Stem Cells News”

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Scientists have improved the sight of two people who were almost blind by injecting their eyes with stem cells from embryos.

The two women, both registered as blind, saw their vision improve in a matter of weeks after being given the embryo-derived cells in the US safety trial.

The breakthrough holds out the hope of a cure in the future for age-related macular degeneration, which currently affects some 500,000 people in Britain.
The results, published this week in The Lancet, provide a major boost for the field of stem cell reseach.

Professor Daniel Brison, of the North West Embryonic Stem Cell Centre in Manchester, said: “This is a very exciting moment for embryonic stem cell therapies.
This is the first peer-reviewed scientific report showing that cells derived from human embryonic stem cells can be transplanted safely into a patient with no sign of complications (…)

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Cultured stem cells from eyes helped improve the sight of eight patients with Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency, a painful, blinding disease, British doctors said.

The patients’ own corneal cells were cultured and used to reduce corneal cloudiness from the disease, The North East England Stem Cell Institute, Newcastle, England, reported in a release Thursday.

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Dozens of people who were blinded or otherwise suffered severe eye damage when they were splashed with caustic chemicals had their sight restored with transplants of their own stem cells — a stunning success for the burgeoning cell-therapy field, Italian researchers reported Wednesday.

The treatment worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes and partially in 14 others, with benefits lasting up to a decade so far. One man whose eyes were severely damaged more than 60 years ago now has near-normal vision.

“This is a roaring success,” said ophthalmologist Dr. Ivan Schwab of the University of California, Davis, who had no role in the study — the longest and largest of its kind.

Stem cell transplants offer hope to the thousands of people worldwide every year who suffer chemical burns on their corneas from heavy-duty cleansers or other substances at work or at home.

The approach would not help people with damage to the optic nerve or macular degeneration, which involves the retina. Nor would it work in people who are completely blind in both eyes, because doctors need at least some healthy tissue that they can transplant.

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Scientists genetically “reprogrammed” human skin cells to possess the same properties as those that make up the retina.

The process involved first turning them into pluripotent stem (IPS) cells, which have the potential to develop into virtually every kind of tissue in the body.

By exposing the IPS cells to a specific cocktail of chemicals, the scientists then caused them to grow into partially developed retina cells – the light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye which transmit nerve signals to the brain.
Although the work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is at a very early stage, it paves the way for treatments that allow retinas to be repaired with cells grown from a patient’s own skin.

In the more immediate future scientists could use the cultivated cells to study genetically-linked eye disorders, or screen new drugs for retina conditions.

Study leader Dr David Gamm, from the University of Wisconsin, said: “This is an important step forward for us, as it not only confirms that multiple retinal cells can be derived from human IPS cells. but also shows how similar the process is to normal human retinal development.

“That is quite remarkable given that the starting cell is so different from a retinal cell and the whole process takes place in a plastic dish.

“We continue to be amazed at how deep we can probe into these early events and find that they mimic those found in developing retinas.
“Perhaps this is the way to close the gap between what we know about building a retina in mice, frogs and flies with that of humans.”

Tests showed that the IPS cells gave rise to many types of retina cell, including the photoreceptors that turn light impulses into electrical nerve signals.
In previous research, scientists have succeeded in restoring vision to blind mice by repairing their retinas with stem cells.

Future treatments could help patients with conditions such as macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among the elderly.

Another disorder involving damage to the retina is retinitis pigmentosa, which causes tunnel vision and blindness.
* Meanwhile, a new kind of “patch” made from stem cells that can mend a broken heart after an attack has been successfully tested by scientists.

Cells lost from the heart do not grow back naturally, leaving the organ in a weakened and vulnerable state.
Researchers in Israel demonstrated the new patch in rats with injured hearts.

from Telegraph

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Patients suffering from blindness now need not wait for donors as doctors have found a way to treat many with the stem cells derived from the cornea of a dead body.
Doctors at the AIIMS and a private clinic in the national capital are using corneal surface stem cells from a cadaver’s (dead person) eye for curing corneal injuries in many.

“We have used the corneal surface stem cells of cadaver’s eye for patients with corneal injury and have been able to correct many vision,” Dr Radhika Tandon, Associate Professor, Department of Opthalmology, AIIMS said, adding “this has been done on over more than 100 patients of corneal injury.” Usually, the standard practice has been a corneal transplant from human cadaver. But due to shortage of donors, doctors have become more specific in their mode of treatment.

The technique has come as a divine blessing to many patients, Tandon said.
“Instead of a whole cornea for one patient, we check the level of injury and use stem cells instead. This way we can help even four patients with one cornea,” Dr Asim Kumar Kandar, Consultant, Centre for Sight, said.
Stem cells exist in various regions of the eye but so far, they can be found at the outer edges of the cornea, he said.

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