Groundbreaking Stem Cell Therapy Repairs Badly Damaged Corneas and Improves Sight

The next frontier of stem cell transplantation might involve the eyes. In research out today, scientists report that an experimental therapy has helped people with otherwise untreatable injuries to their corneas. Researchers at Mass Eye and Ear led the study, a Phase I/II clinical trial of 14 patients. In most cases, the therapy—a transplant of stem cells from the person’s other healthy eye—appeared to safely restore the surface of people’s severely damaged corneas, often improving their vision as well. The findings could lead to a novel treatment for eye injuries that don’t respond to conventional options, the researchers say. The cornea is the transparent frontmost layer of the eye that both protects it and helps us see clearly by focusing light on the retina. When people’s corneas are scarred by serious injury or infection, doctors can usually treat it by transplanting healthy corneal tissue from a donor, also known as a corneal graft. But sometimes, an injury is so extensive tha ... Read full article.