STEM CELLS RESTORE EYESIGHT

AP
Sight-restoring treatment shows promise for some of the millions of Americans expected to be blind by 2015.

Doctors are saying stem cell transplants are a promising new treatment to restore sight to individuals who have suffered severe eye damage. Dozens of patients whose eyes were injured after being splashed with caustic chemicals were able to see again after receiving a transplant

Italian researchers reported that the transplants had worked completely in 82 of 107 eyes, including in one patient who sustained severe eye injuries some 60 years ago and has had his sight almost completely restored. The transplant worked at least partially in 14 other eyes, and the benefits have lasted for up to 10 years.

"This is great work, an absolutely great way to do it," said Dr. Douglas Lazzaro, chairman of ophthalmology at Long Island College Hospital. "It can only increase the success rate of these types of procedures."

Dr. Bruce Rosenthal, chief of low-vision programs at Lighthouse International, a nonprofit that fights vision impairment, called the stem cell transplants a very promising treatment. The procedure bypasses the risk of rejection posed by corneal transplants because the patient’s own stem cells are used.

"This is a major step in returning vision to someone who has lost it," Rosenthal says.

University of California ophthalmologist Ivan Schwab, who is not involved in the study, called the research "a roaring success."

Each year, stem cell transplants could offer the promise of healing to thousands of people who sustain chemical burns on their corneas, although they would not help those with macular degeneration, which involves the eye’s retina, or those with damage to the optic nerve. People who are blind in both eyes also would not be candidates for the transplant because some healthy tissue is required to undergo it, doctors explained.

The researchers who performed the transplants for the study, which was published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, removed stem cells from the patient’s good eye, grew them in the lab and put them back in the injured eye. There, they grew new corneal tissue that replaced the damaged tissue. None of the patients needed anti-rejection drugs.

For many years, adult stem cells have been used to treat disorders as varied as leukemia and sickle cell anemia. But fixing damaged eyes with a stem cell transplant is relatively new - and so far is not being done here.

"The U.S. is pretty stringent," Rosenthal says. "They won’t allow these procedures until they are FDA-approved and have gone through a lot of clinical testing. But even though it’s not ready for prime time, there is a lot of hope for the future."

Some 61 million Americans are at high risk for serious vision loss, according to Lighthouse International, and about 61 million individuals age 45 and older will have vision loss by 2015. A Lighthouse survey revealed that fewer than half (46%) of Americans get an annual eye exam.