Breakthrough - Stem Cell Work Returns Sight to Patients

Two women with untreatable eye diseases said they had dramatic improvements in their vision after injections of human embryonic stem cells, making it the first documented time these controversial cells have helped someone.

"This is a big step forward for regenerative medicine, said Dr. Steven Schwartz at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. "It's nowhere near a treatment for vision loss, but it's a signal that embryonic stem-cell based strategies may work."


Schwartz added several caveats - that the study was preliminary, only in two patients, and that it's difficult to measure vision in low-vision patients. But even so he was "thrilled and excited" about the study.
Schwartz and his colleagues published their study in The Lancet. For each patient, stem cells derived from an embryo were injected into their retinal tissue. They had to take anti-rejection drugs for a short period so their eyes wouldn't reject the foreign tissue.

Dr. Steven Schwartz and a 51-year-old patient who says her vision has improved after stem cell treatment.
Before her stem cell surgery in July, Sue Freeman, 78, couldn't take a walk, go shopping or cook by herself because of macular degeneration, a disease that affects millions of Americans and for which there is no cure.
"I couldn't pour a glass of water without spilling it on the counter," she said.

Now, after surgery in one eye, she cooks, shops and walks on her own. "I can even read my own writing now," she added. "And I've noticed other things. My husband and I were walking around one of our rental properties and I noticed scuff marks on the wall. I told him we need to fix this, and he said, 'You're seeing things better, but that's making my honey-do list even longer.'"

Schwartz, chief of the retina division at Jules Stein, emphasized that the results are preliminary and it is possible the patients' vision could get worse again. Researchers will now try the procedure in 22 more patients in research centers in the United States.

Many who consider an embryo to be human life have objected to embryonic stem cell research. In his commentary, Atala said induced pluripotent stem cells, which can be made without destroying an embryo, may also be useful. These cells, which have been derived from skin, can be derived directly from a patient, making anti-rejection drugs unnecessary.

CNN