ABOVE: FLICKR, FARHAN PERDANA (BLEK)
The results of the first clinical trial using induced pluripotent stem cells from donors point to signs of efficacy for treating the progressive form of blindness known as age-related macular degeneration. Last week, the Japanese team of researchers reported that the first five patients to be treated are doing well and did not suffer further eyesight loss for at least a year after receiving the therapy in 2017, according to The Japan Times. One patient’s eyesight even improved.
To create the therapy, researchers reprogrammed skin cells from an anonymous donor into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), then differentiated those stem cells into a type of retinal cell that was injected into the eyes of the patients.
According to the Riken Center for Developmental Biology’s Masayo Takahashi, who led the study and described the findings at the 123rd annual meeting of the Japanese Ophthalmological Society on ...
