Retinal Cell Implants Could Hold the Key to Repairing Vision Loss
We are susceptible to various medical conditions as we age. One of the most common conditions that affect old people is Macular degeneration. This is characterized by the slow and permanent deterioration of the Macula, which is a small central portion of the retina.
This is the main cause of the decline of one’s vision and may lead to complete vision loss if there is nothing that is done.
A lot of people want to have their vision restored because who doesn’t want to experience what nature has to offer, right? That is why a group of physicians, along with some researchers, reported earlier that they were successful in treating macular degeneration using retinal implants.
The Procedure
In a report published in the Science Translational Medicine, a team of physicians was able to successfully treat patients with advanced stages of macular degeneration using retinal implants.
These implants were created with the use of stem cells. According to the physicians who were involved in the study, they did this to four willing patients. They transplanted the retinal implants which also consists of a small and thin layer of retinal pigment epithelium cells that were grown from human embryonic stem cells that are placed on top of a thin supportive synthetic Parylene structure.
The four patients were screened and tested and one year after the procedure was done, three of the four participants had vastly improved their vision and none of them had any signs of vision loss progression.
According to Amir Kashani, a clinical ophthalmologist at the University of Southern California who was one of the physicians in the study said that the implants could also stop any potential progression or continued degeneration of the macula, which means that the patients would never suffer from vision loss ever again.
Kashani added that the study wants to prove the safety and efficacy of the treatment because that is one of the first goals of coming up with a potential cure.
