Stem cells to treat corneal blindness

On its website, BBC News reported that researchers at Scotland's Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion in Edinburgh, working with the Gartnavel General Hospital in Glasgow, will work together using an innovative technique involving adult stem cells to treat patients with corneal blindness. Approximately 20 patients will take part in the initial tests, using cells cultivated before being transplanted onto the surface of the cornea. But, unlike the more controversial embryonic stem-cell research, the technique takes stem cells from dead adult donors. Not long ago, in trials at the University of Pennsylvania, subjects with inherited blindness experienced dramatic improvements in vision after a corrective gene was injected into the eye. The Scottish researchers hope to emulate the success of this previous study.

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