Stem cells stop blindness in mice

Scientists have reported that stem cells retain the light source for mice that are about to be blind. This study opens up the prospect that some forms of blindness in humans will also be treated with patients' own bone marrow cells.

Some forms of blindness in humans can be treated with patients' own stem cells The team focused on a group of eye diseases called retinitis pigmentosa. When suffering from this disease, the retinal cells are weakened constantly, reducing the eyesight gradually and sometimes leading to blindness. Currently there are about 3,500 people suffering from this disease, but there is still no solution to cure.

Martin Friedlander and colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, took a bunch of bone marrow stem cells from adult mice that injected the eye of the newly infected piglet pigmentosa before the retina's they start to get depressed. The team found that the injections were effective in stopping some forms of eye impairment, especially for cone cells that perform color recognition and standard definition functions.

Experimental rats also had the ability to detect light entering the eye while the control mice were completely blind. This caused Friedlander, who published the results of his work in the Clinical Investigation magazine, to say: 'It's amazing'.

Positive outlook

Martin Friedlander (Photo: scripps)

Although it is known that stem cells can develop into many different cell types, it is unclear how they help the eye in this case. The team had previously suggested that stem cells could help the blood vessels of the retina not break by integrating into those blood vessels. However, some other stem cells can grow in the eye and produce life-sustaining molecules for both blood vessels and cones.

Friedlander hopes that cases of human retinitis pigmentosa can be treated by injecting patients with their own bone marrow stem cells. In humans, eye impairment usually does not occur before adolescence. He said: 'We will bring this technology to hospitals.' Friedlander hopes to start testing on patients as early as this year if he can gather enough evidence to prove it well. This technique is safe.

Lois Smith , an ophthalmologist who is studying at Harvard University, agrees that the technique is one of the most promising treatments for blindness discovered in the last few years. Retinitis pigmentosa has many causes, so it's hard to find a drug that works in all cases.

Researchers deduce that stem cells can also be used to treat many other forms of blindness. This disease is most often caused by diabetes mellitus and age-induced degeneration. Both of these are conditions for abnormal blood vessels in the eye to grow. Smith believes that stem cells can be controlled to create molecules that can properly regulate the growth of blood vessels.