Stem cells improve vision for two legally blind patients, study shows
(CBS) Can stem cells cure blindness?
Promising results from one of the first U.S. studies to use human embryonic stem cells in people suggest that the cells could certainly help. The study described treatments for two legally blind women - one in her 70s, the other in her 50s - with different types of macular degeneration eye disease that causes vision loss.
Within four months both women had improved vision, the study found.
"I can't tell you how excited I am about this," study author Dr. Steven D. Schwartz, a professor of ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute, told NPR. "For these patients, the impact is enormous."
For the study, published in the Jan. 23 issue of The Lancet, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles and Advanced Cell Technology in Mass. performed a stem cell implant procedure on a 78-year-old woman with the "dry" form of age-related macular degeneration, one of the top causes of blindness in the Europe and the U.S., according to an Advanced Cell Technology written statement. The other woman, 51, had a condition called Stargardt's macular dystrophy, the most common cause of vision loss in younger people. Stargardt's usually starts when people are between 10 and 20 years old.
After four months, both women performed better on standardized eye tests and reported improvements in vision. One of the patients spoke to NPR about the transformation.
"One day, I looked down and I could see my watch," she said. "I probably hadn't seen it in about a year and a half or two. And I could see," Sue Freeman, 78, of Laguna Beach, Calif., told NPR. "So that was exciting for me. And I remember saying, 'Oh my goodness. I can see my watch. I can actually tell time.' "
The other patient - a graphic designer who began losing her sight in her 20s from Stargardt's who wanted to remain anonymous - also has seen improvement in her day to day life doing routine chores and even riding a bike again.
"It was pretty amazing," the woman told NPR. "I was like kind of looking at everything new again, you know, just sort of going around and first not believing it but then really looking and, you know, realizing that I, that, 'You know, I definitely had more sight in that eye," she said.
Using human embryonic stem cells for research has been a controversial issue since the cells' discovery in 1998, according to the study authors. The cells can morph into other types of cells, fueling scientists' hopes that they can be used to treat diseases. In these cases, the cells were used to create retinal pigment epithelial cells that protect and provide nutrition for cells that sense light. But cells come from the destruction of human embryos, which raises ethical red flags for many. This study was only one of two human embryonic stem cells currently approved by the FDA, but the other study on treating spinal cord injury discontinued, according to the New York Times.
A third stem cell surgery was performed on a British patient at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, according to the written statement, and had no complications.
Schwartz told the New York Times that the findings are "a big step forward for regenerative medicine."
The American Macular Degeneration Foundation has more on macular degeneration and Stargardt disease.
