Blind mice see again after retina cell transplants

By Patricia Reaney
Reuters

Nov 8, 2006 — LONDON (Reuters) - British and American scientists have restored vision in blind mice by transplanting light-sensitive cells into their eyes in a breakthrough that could lead to new treatments of human eye diseases.

The mice suffered from eye damage called photoreceptor loss which occurs in macular degeneration, the leading cause of sight loss in the elderly, and other eye disorders.

But instead of using stem cells, which could form into any cell type, the scientists transplanted cells that had reached a later stage of development toward becoming photoreceptor cells.

"We have shown for the first time that it is possible to transplant photoreceptors," said Dr Robert MacLaren, a scientist and eye surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

"These cells are lost in some of the more common causes of blindness" he added in an interview.

The scientists believe further research could lead to the first human retinal cell transplants for people with blinding diseases within a decade.

Photoreceptors are specialized light sensitive cells that line the back of the eye and are essential for sight. In eye diseases such as macular degeneration the cells are destroyed.

Previous studies that had used stem cells, master cells in the body that have the potential to become any type of cell in the body, had failed because the cells did not form into photoreceptors.

PROOF OF PRINCIPLE

Researchers had thought that the mature retina, the part of the eye that senses light and forms images, did not have the capacity for repair.

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