Hope to restore eyesight

Zebrafish, often used in genetic studies, can open the way for regenerating damaged retina and returning light to the blind.

>>>Transplanting cells to help visually impaired people recover vision?

According to a report on PLOS ONE, experts from the University of Alberta (Canada) said that it is possible to use zebrafish stem cells to selectively recover damaged photoreceptors.

Rod cells and cones are the most important photoreceptors, with rod cells providing vision at night, and cones for daytime use. For a long time, almost all cases of successful photosensitive cell regeneration were limited to rod cells but not in cones.'This is the first time an animal model has shown that stem cells can treat cones in the retina , ' says biologist Ted Allison.

He said that for people with retinal lesions, recovery of cones is the most important thing, because it can bring about visual ability during the day. After this success, experts will try to find the specific gene in the zebrafish gene sequence, which is used to activate the recovery of cone cells.