Surprising Science — November 22, 2010

Stem Cell Eye Treatments

Blind patients suffering from a type of eye disease that strikes in childhood will become the second group of people in the world to receive stem cells left over from fertility treatment.

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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the go-ahead for the controversial transplant of embryonic stem cells into the eyes of patients with Stargardt’s macular degeneration, where the light-sensitive retina cells at the back of eye are destroyed. The announcement follows the first injection of embryonic stem cells into a patient in the US who is partially paralysed as a result of a spinal cord injury. Last October, a US biotechnology company, Geron, announced the start of the first clinical trial of embryonic stem cells with the hope of repairing damaged nerves.

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