Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., a biotechnology company applying cellular technology in the field of regenerative medicine, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation for the company’s MA09-hRPE cells for use in the treatment of Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy (SMD).“We are pleased that the FDA has, for the first time, granted orphan drug status for the use of an embryonic stem cell derived therapy in treating an unmet medical need,” said Edmund Mickunas, Vice President Regulatory. “We believe that our terminally differentiated RPE cells represent a promising treatment for patients with SMD and expect to be in a position to accelerate clinical development and hopefully make RPE cellular...

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Modern Eye Prosthetics Look Real!

Image via WikipediaOnce, artificial eyes looked patently false but the latest prosthetics used today look almost real, with precise colour-matching, accurate shaping and some eye movement possible.Dr M. Ashwin Reddy, consultant paediatric ophthalmologist at Barts and the London and Moorfields Eye Hospital, says: 'Artificial eyes have been used for more than 100 years, first appearing in the late 19th Century'.In the past, patients simply had a shell without anything behind to increase the volume in the eye socket. This resulted in drooping of the eyelid and didn't really make for a very good cosmetic result.Now a patient will usually have a ball-shaped orbital implant surgically inserted into the socket. If you remove the eye, there's no tissue...

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Radioactive discs in the eyes

Image via WikipediaJ. William Harbour, MD at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is implanting radioactive discs in the eye as a treatment option for a rare type of cancer called retinoblastoma.Retinoblastoma, as the name suggests, is characterized by tumors in the eye's retina. It is rare, affecting about one child in 20,000. In the United States, about 200 children each year are diagnosed with it. Approximately 40 percent of them develop tumors in both eyes, so in cases where the tumors prove resistant to chemotherapy, very young children and their parents are faced with a choice between a life without eyes and a high risk of death."The treatment plaque looks like a bottle cap made of gold," Harbour says. "Radiation seeds...

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Image via WikipediaThe Los Angeles Times reports, Nearly three in 10 Americans with diabetes over the age of 40 suffer from vision impairment caused by diabetic retinopathy, and about 4.4% have a form of the condition so severe it threatens their eyesight, according to a study published in the August 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. HealthDay reported that the news wasn't all bad, however. The findings suggest that good control of blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol can go a long way toward preventing or slowing diabetic eye disease. For the study, CDC researchers reviewed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 to 2008, which included nearly 7,000 people over age...

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Image via WikipediaThe journal Pediatrics, in association with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), released the results of a 2-year study looking at emergency room visits for medical device-associated adverse events in children. Of all the visits, about 23 percent were associated with contact lens wear. These events included abrasions and ulcers of the cornea and conjunctivitis. While these did not require hospitalization, many could have been prevented.The most common risk factors for contact lens complications in this study were alteration of the prescribed wearing or replacement schedules and non-compliance with recommended contact lens wear and care regimens. It is well known that improper care, using solutions other than those prescribed,...

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Green laser pointer can cause eye damage

Image via WikipediaGreen laser pointers are readily available in stores and on the Internet. Class 3A green laser pointers are increasingly being used by amateur astronomers to pinpoint objects in the night sky and by the construction industry and architecture educators to point out details of structures in daylight.Dennis Robertson, M.D., Mayo Clinic ophthalmologist, conducted investigations with a green laser pointer directed to the retina of a patient’s eye - scheduled for removal because of a malignancy.The exposure was 60 seconds to the fovea, the center of acute vision; five minutes to a site 5 degrees below the fovea; and 15 minutes to a site 5 degrees above the fovea. Color photographs were taken of the eye before and after exposure...

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BMI and Glaucoma

MedPage Today reported, Women with higher body mass index and weight were at reduced risk of developing certain forms of glaucoma, according to a study published in the August issue of Ophthalmology.In fact, for each unit of body mass index, participants in the giant Nurses' Health Study showed a 6% reduction (95% CI 2% to 9%) in the rate of developing primary open-angle glaucoma with an intraocular pressure of 21 mm Hg or less at diagnosis (so-called normal tension). The study authors theorized that some measure linked to adiposity or lean mass that is under sex hormonal influences may protect against the development of primary open-angle glaucoma.According to the researchers' report online in Ophthalmology, no relationship between body composition...

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Artificial Retina with Micro Fabrication

An implantable artificial retina fabricated at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is bringing sight to the blind.“We’re talking about our progress and where we see the project going,” said Sat Pannu, who leads Livermore’s Center for Micro- and Nano-Technology, which has developed the microfabrication technology.The project has many partners — including Second Sight Medical Products Inc., the Southern California company that has licensed the technology. Early, lower-resolution versions of the device allow people blinded for decades by the genetic eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa or by age-related macular degeneration to see images, albeit fuzzy.This is how it works: A miniature camera, which sits inside a pair of sunglasses, sends images...

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August is Cataract Awareness Month

Image by W9NED via Flickr1. A large or high waterfall.2. A great downpour; a deluge.3. Pathology Opacity of the lens or capsule of the eye, causing impairment of vision or blindness. August is Cataract Awareness Month – a month when eye care professionals hope to spread the word of the causes of cataracts, the prevention and the treatments. Cataracts are often considered an older person’s problem. It’s estimated that half of all people 80 years or older have at least one cataract. Over 20 million Americans over the age of 40 have cataracts. Although they are more common in the elderly, they’re not rare in younger people either. The National Eye Institute identifies the different types of cataracts:Secondary cataract. Cataracts can form...

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Tribal Clinic Working On Telemedecine

Image via WikipediaYellowhawk Tribal Health Center near Pendleton, OR, is one of two tribal clinics (the other is in Wichita, Kan.) working on a test of long-distance eye care with researchers from Oregon Health & Science University and Legacy Health's Devers Eye Institute. This effort waqs highlighted by The OregonianAt Yellowhawk, patients with diabetes can undergo a retinal scan with a $20,000-plus non-mydriatic camera, which can photograph the retina without dilating the pupil. Next, the images are uploaded to the Internet and sent to doctors in Portland who check for signs of retinopathy. The images also allow doctors to check for glaucoma or macular degenerati...

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