Blind Mice Cured with Cell Transplants

American and British scientists from the Institute of Ophthalmology and the Institute of Child Health in London and the University of Michigan Medical School in the United States have discovered a new treatment that has restored vision to blind mice. The scientists were successful at transplanting light-sensitive cells into the mice's eyes and restoring their vision partially. This breakthrough in science has the capability of eventually helping scientists find cures to human eye diseases.

The mice all suffered from eye damage called photoreceptor loss from genetic defects. This type of blindness occurs in macular degeneration, which happens to be the leading cause of blindness in elders and other eye disorders. The scientists then transplanted cells that had reached a later stage of becoming photoreceptor cells. They decided to choose this method instead of using stem cells, which has the ability of forming into any type of cell.

According to the Wikipedia, A photoreceptor, or photoreceptor cell, is a specialized type of neuron found in the eye's retina that is capable of phototransduction. More specifically, the photoreceptor sends signals to other neurons by a change in its membrane potential when it absorbs photons. Eventually, this information will be used by the visual system to form a complete representation of the visual world. Basically these light sensitive cells line the back of the eye and are essential for sight.

There are millions of photoreceptors located in the eye while acting like "pixels" in a camera. They then interpret incoming light while hooking up with nerve cells to transmit the information to the brain. However, diseases such as myriad illnesses, from diabetes to old age related macular degeneration, has the ability to kill off the photoreceptor cells causing damage to the retina and creating partial or full loss of vision.

In the past while trying to restore photoreceptor cells, scientists performed stem cell research, however, each time they attempted the procedure it seemed to fail because the cells were not able to form into photoreceptors.

Not only does this new breakthrough break away from the ethical questions regarding embryonic stem cell controversy, this new study has the ability to help researches discover new techniques for restoring other cells in the nervous system also.
Dr. Robert MacLauren, an eye surgeon and scientist at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London stated, "We have shown for the first time that it is possible to transplant photoreceptors." MacLauren added, "These cells are lost in some of the more common causes of blindness." MacLauren and other scientist believe that within the next decade further research could eventually lead to the first human retinal cell transplants for people with blinding diseases.

Historically researchers have believed that the mature retina, or the part of the eye that senses light and forms images, was unable to be repaired. However, MacLauren and other scientists found that by using precursor cells that were already programmed to become photoreceptors but were not fully formed, proved to be successful for transplantation.
MacLauren stated," We have taken them out of the donor retina and transplanted them into a host retina extremely quickly at that precise point in time and with minimal trauma to the surrounding tissue." The scientists transplanted the cells so quickly only taking them out of their normal environment about 30 minutes and positioning them into a conducive retinal environment in the mice.

In the end, the formerly blind mice were able to react to very low levels of light the research reported. Light stimuli began to initiate new activity in brain cells that are associated with the mice's vision.
A green fluorescent genetic "tag" was attached to the transplanted cells by MacLauren's group, allowing the scientist to observe the cells' progress as they started the connection procedure to other cells inside of the eye.
Even though the researchers used photoreceptors precursor cells extracted from the eyes of newborn mice, the scientist are confident that adult stem cells could be genetically manipulated to produce the increasing number of precursor cells inside of a lab.

This is one of the best researches to happen successfully within decades and can one day provide the opening procedure to finding the cure to blindness. I hope that God willing this article will be of benefit to you.