by Juanita Nonwo – EM TV Online
Blindness may now be a thing of the past as surgeons in Britain have advanced into treating age-related Macular Degeneration by using human stem cells.
Macular Degeneration, sometimes called AMD or ARMD is the leading cause of vision loss and blindness associated with old age.
According to Professor Lyndon Da Cruz at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, further trails are underway and if all turns out well, this could mean a breakthrough in treating blindness.
The procedure involves taking a stem cell and reproducing it many times; turning it into the type of cell they want to replace in the human eye.
“We then take that and transplant it into the eye. So the stem cell is transformed into the cell we want, the organ we’re missing first, and then in essence an adult version of the finished product is transplanted into the eye. So the stem cell is the source but the stem cell in this particular project doesn’t go into the eye. What goes into the eye is an adult, completely formed matching cell for the one that’s damaged…” explained Professor Lyndon Da Cruz.
