Stem cell transplantation holds hope for treating age-related vision loss

Robert Novoski

Holes in the retina can make vision uneven or blurry

CHRISTOPH BURGSTEDT PHOTO LIBRARY/SCIENCE

A human stem cell transplant closed a hole in a monkey’s retina, which appears to have improved its vision, and offers hope for a new approach to treating this type of age-related vision loss.

As we age, the clear, gel-like fluid in the eye can thicken and pull on the retina. This can tear tissue, causing blurry or uneven vision. Doctors can usually move tissue from other parts of the eye into the retinal hole, but in some cases, this happens again.

To test another approach, Michiko Mandai at Kobe City Eye Hospital in Japan and her colleagues developed stem cells derived from human embryos into cells that are precursors to retinal cells.

They moved the precursor cells into a 1 millimeter wide hole in the retina of the snow monkey’s right eye (Fuscata Monkey) who had difficulty on vision tests in different studies.

The Mandai team trained the monkey to complete a vision test, using only its right eye, which required it to focus its gaze on one of hundreds of dots that appeared on a screen.

Before the transplant, he could only focus his gaze on 1.5 percent of the points. Six months after the transplant, they zeroed in on 11 to 26 percent of the spots in three tests.

The results showed that the transplants improved the monkeys’ vision, but it’s clear the animals couldn’t tell exactly how good their eyesight was, said Marius Ader of Dresden University of Technology in Germany.

Further research needs to be done on larger groups of non-human animals, but if the research is successful, the approach will probably work in humans, because our eyes are very similar to the eyes of other primates, he said.

Topic:

  • vision/
  • aging

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