Stopping Glaucoma with Stem Cells, a Hope

Medical News Today (MNT) wrote, "By devising a way to produce retinal ganglion cells from stem cells derived from individual patients, researchers hope to improve personalized treatments for glaucoma." Read more.

 Related MNT story: "Using stem cells derived from human skin cells, researchers led by Jason Meyer, assistant professor of biology, along with graduate student Sarah Ohlemacher of the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, have successfully demonstrated the ability to turn stem cells into retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the neurons that conduct visual information from the eye to the brain. Their goal is the development of therapies to prevent or cure glaucoma." Read more.

Scientists Move Closer to Creating Human Eye from Stem Cells

"A breakthrough in stem cells just brought us much closer to lab-grown human eyeballs," says Popular Mechanics. "Biologists led by Kohji Nishida at Osaka University in Japan have discovered a new way to nurture and grow the many separate tissues that make up the human eyeball, and the scientists need only a small sample adult skin to build them all. Using their new method, Nishida's team can grow retinas, corneas, the eye's lens, and more. In a preliminary trial, the Japanese researchers cultured and grew sheathes of rabbit cornea—the transparent cover of the eye— that restored sight in blind rabbits born without fully-grown corneas. The research is published today in the journal Nature. Don't throw away your glasses (or eye patch) just yet, but human trials are up next." Read more.

Researchers Turn Stem Cells into Retinal Ganglion Cells

"Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a method to efficiently turn human stem cells into retinal ganglion cells, the type of nerve cells located within the retina that transmit visual signals from the eye to the brain. Death and dysfunction of these cells cause vision loss in conditions like glaucoma and multiple sclerosis," according to Science Digest. "The laboratory process, described in the journal Scientific Reports, entails genetically modifying a line of human embryonic stem cells to become fluorescent upon their differentiation to retinal ganglion cells, and then using that cell line for development of new differentiation methods and characterization of the resulting cells." Read more.

New Macular Degeneration Treatment with Stem Cells

"Age-related macular degeneration (AMRD) could be treated by transplanting photoreceptors produced by the directed differentiation of stem cells, thanks to findings published today by Professor Gilbert Bernier of the University of Montreal and its affiliated Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. ARMD is a common eye problem caused by the loss of cones, " according to Medical News Today. "Bernier's team has developed a highly effective in vitro technique for producing light sensitive retina cells from human embryonic stem cells. 'Our method has the capacity to differentiate 80% of the stem cells into pure cones,' Professor Gilbert explained. 'Within 45 days, the cones that we allowed to grow towards confluence spontaneously formed organised retinal tissue that was 150 microns thick. This has never been achieved before.'" Read more.

Stem Cells Used to Treat Macular Degeneration

"An injection of stem cells into the eye may soon slow or reverse the effects of early-stage age-related macular degeneration, according to new research from scientists at Cedars-Sinai," according to Medical News Today. "The stem cell injection resulted in 130 days of preserved vision in laboratory rats, which roughly equates to 16 years in humans." Read more.

Stems Cells Could Treat Corneal Hazing

“Treating the potentially blinding haze of a scar on the cornea might be as straightforward as growing stem cells from a tiny biopsy of the patient's undamaged eye and then placing them on the injury site, according to mouse model experiments. The findings could rescue vision for millions of people worldwide and decrease the need for corneal transplants.” That’s the word from Science Daily. Read more.

Scientists Create Stem Cells That Repairs Retinal Vascular Tissue in Mice

"Investigators at Johns Hopkins report they have developed human induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) capable of repairing damaged retinal vascular tissue in mice," reports Science Daily. "The stem cells, derived from human umbilical cord-blood and coaxed into an embryonic-like state, were grown without the conventional use of viruses, which can mutate genes and initiate cancers, according to the scientists. Their safer method of growing the cells has drawn increased support among scientists, they say, and paves the way for a stem cell bank of cord-blood derived iPSCs to advance regenerative medicine research." Read more.

One Step Closer to Curing Blindness? Just Maybe

“Scientists are one step closer to curing blindness, after they carried out the first successful transplant of light-sensitive photoreceptor cells from a synthetic retina that was grown from embryonic stem cells,” reports Medical News Today. “Researchers from University College London (UCL) and Moorfields Eye Hospital in the UK, transplanted the photoreceptor cells in to night-blind mice and found that the cells developed normally. The cells integrated into the existing retina in the mice and formed the required nerve connections that transmit visual information to the brain. The study, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, shows embryonic stem cells could potentially be used to provide an ‘unlimited supply of healthy photoreceptors for retinal cell transplantations to treat blindness in humans.’” Read more.

Producing Retinal Cells from Stem Cells

“Research led by a biology professor in the School of Science at IUPUI has uncovered a method to produce retinal cells from regenerative human stem cells without the use of animal products, proteins or other foreign substances, which historically have limited the application of stem cells to treat disease and other human developmental disorders,” according to a post on Medical News Today. Read more.

Scientists Hope to Stem Diabetic Retinopathy with Stem Cells

“Scientists at Queen's University Belfast are hoping to develop a novel approach that could save the sight of millions of diabetes sufferers using adult stem cells,” notes Science Daily. “Currently millions of diabetics worldwide are at risk of sight loss due to a condition called Diabetic Retinopathy. This is when high blood sugar causes the blood vessels in the eye to become blocked or to leak. Failed blood flow harms the retina and leads to vision impairment and if left untreated can lead to blindness.” Read more.

Stem Cell Treatment Restores Man's Sight

"When Taylor Binns slowly began going blind because of complications with his contact lenses, he started to prepare for living the rest of his life without vision. But an innovative treatment using stem cells has changed all that, and returned to him the gift of sight," reports CTV News. "Four years ago, while on a humanitarian work mission to Haiti, Binns developed intense eye pain and increasingly blurry vision. Doctors at home couldn’t figure out what was wrong and, over the next two years, Binns slowly went legally blind, no longer able to drive or read from his textbooks at Queens University, where he was studying commerce." Read more.

Engineers Deliver Stem Cells to Eye

"A new technique for transporting stem cell therapy to the eye has been developed by a group of engineers at the University of Sheffield, England. They hope this discovery can aid in repairing eyes that have been damaged by disease or accident in a natural way," reports Medical News Today. "In a new study, published in the journal Acta Biomaterialia, a team of experts detail their technique for creating membranes to help in the grafting of stem cells onto the eye, a way to imitate attributes of the eye. This technology has been developed to treat injuries to the cornea, the see-through layer on the front of the eye, one of the biggest causes of blindness around the world. The research team used methods known as microstereolithography and electrospinning to create a disc of biodegradable material which can be placed over the cornea. The disc is then filled with stem cells which multiply, permitting the eye to be fixed naturally." Read more.

New Delivery System of Stem Cells for Eyes

"Engineers at the University of Sheffield have developed a new technique for delivering stem cell therapy to the eye which they hope will help the natural repair of eyes damaged by accident or disease. This could help millions of people across the world retain -- or even regain -- their sight," notes Science Digest. "In research published in the journal Acta Biomaterialia, the team describe a new method for producing membranes to help in the grafting of stem cells onto the eye, mimicking structural features of the eye itself. The technology has been designed to treat damage to the cornea, the transparent layer on the front of the eye, which is one of the major causes of blindness in the world." Read more.

Creating a Form of Macular Degeneration from Stem Cells

A Science Daily post reports that "for the first time, researchers have taken skin from patients and, using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, turned them into a laboratory model for an inherited type of macular degeneration." Read more.

Scientists Use CLs to Transfer Stem Cells

Australian scientists announced how sheets of stem cells grown on contact lenses can repair damaged eyes.  This could pave the way for an effective treatment for painful caustic or thermal burns, or severe inflammation of the surface of the eye. The treatment transfers minuscule strips of adult stem cells from specifically designed contact lenses onto the eye, to help rebuild the surface of the cornea. Centre for Eye Research Australia researcher Karl David Brown said it was the first time they had proved cells had transferred from the contact lens to the eye to rebuild the surface.  During the trial, limbal stem cells, which function naturally to repair the eye, were taken from the edge of the cornea.  Sheets containing hundreds of thousands of cells were grown on contact lenses. Read more.

Stem Cells Spontaneously Form Part of Eye

"Human-derived stem cells can spontaneously form the tissue that develops into the part of the eye that allows us to see, according to a study published by Cell Press in the 5th anniversary issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell," reports Science Daily. "Transplantation of this 3D tissue in the future could help patients with visual impairments see clearly." Read more.

Stem Cells Restore Sight in Two Patients

A technique has been "developed by Scottish specialists to reverse corneal blindness, and it is believed to be the first treatment of its kind in the UK," according to the BBC. "Both have corneal blindness, and until now the only treatment was a transplant of cornea tissue from an organ donor." Read more.

Stem Cells to Repair the Cornea

"A new cornea may be the only way to prevent a patient going blind - but there is a shortage of donated corneas and the queue for transplantation is long. Scientists at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have for the first time successfully cultivated stem cells on human corneas, which may in the long term remove the need for donors," according to Medical News Today. Read more.

Stem Cells Used for MacD

"The first published results of trials using cells derived from human embryonic stem cells appear to show they have passed an initial safety hurdle," according to a Medical News Today post. "In The Lancet this week, researchers report that two nearly blind patients, one with Stargardt's macular dystrophy and the other with dry age-related macular degeneration (the leading cause of blindness in developed countries), showed measurable improvements in vision that lasted for more than four months after receiving injections of retinal pigment epithelium cells derived from human embryonic stem cells." Read more.

Here's what WebMD had to post: "In the study, the women received new RPE cells grown from human embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells have been tested in humans only once before -- in paralyzed patients with injured spinal cords. Results of those studies, now canceled, were never officially reported." Read more.

Here's the story in the New York Times: "They come from the second clinical trial involving the stem cells, using a therapy developed by Advanced Cell Technology to treat macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness." Read more.

Europeans Using Stem Cells to Treat Stargardt's

"The European authorities have given the go ahead for trials to treat patients with Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy (SMD) using retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs)," reports MedicalNewsToday. "If successful, the trial may pave the way to an effective treatment not only for SMD, but also for other degenerative diseases such as dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The trial will be the first in Europe to use hESCs." Read more.