WIKIMEDIA, RAKESH AHUJACataracts, a clouding of lenses leading to vision defects, cause more than half of the world’s cases of blindness, but current treatments carry complications and often create the need for corrective lenses post-surgery. Now a team of researchers from China and the U.S. has developed a technique to remove clouded lenses without removing endogenous stem cells, which then go on to regrow functional lenses and restore vision in human patients. The findings were published yesterday (March 9) in Nature.
“An ultimate goal of stem cell research is to turn on the regenerative potential of one’s own stem cells for tissue and organ repair and disease therapy,” study coauthor Kang Zhang of the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine said in a statement. “We believe that our new approach will result in a paradigm shift in cataract surgery and may offer patients a safer and better treatment option in the future.”
Current treatment involves removal of the cataractous lens and implantation of an artificial replacement. In this procedure, lens epithelial stem cells (LECs) are also removed, preventing lens regrowth post-surgery. But the operation is associated with complications such as lens dislocation or calcification, and its use on young children has been controversial because ...
