STEM CELL RESEARCH at the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India, involves the generation of reparative tissue in the laboratory, which is used to replace damaged or diseased tissue.
Image: Courtesy of the LV Prasad Eye Institute
-
The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
Read More »
A new vision research center opening in India today becomes the latest in a handful of facilities dedicated to exploring the potential of adult eye stem cells to repair vision damage. The Champalimaud Center for Translation Eye Research (C-TRACER), part of the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India, will continue research begun by LV Prasad scientists, who use eye stem cells from living adults to grow new cells that are then implanted into damaged eyes.
The center's goal is to restore vision to some portion of the 65 million people worldwide—about 1 percent of the world population—considered to be legally blind, which the National Federation of the Blind defines as a central visual acuity of 20 / 200 or less in the stronger eye, even when aided by a corrective lens. Especially in developing countries in Africa and Asia, "most of these people are needlessly blind," says D. Balasubramanian, research director for both LV Prasad and the new facility.
Some of these people have vision problems caused by currently untreatable diseases, he notes, but others simply because they cannot afford or do not have access to relatively simple fixes such as surgery to remove cataracts (clouding of eye lenses).
Balasubramanian says the research center, which is being funded by the philanthropic Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, will be critical to improving eye care in his country where an estimated 15 million people suffer from eyesight woes, many of them genetic. "Hundreds of millions of Indians marry within their community," says Balasubramanian, a former director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology and dean of the University of Hyderabad. "So there is a lot of inherited blindness that is gene-derived. Almost one in every 4,000 live births in India [for example] seems to produce congenital glaucoma."
Among the disorders that Balasubramanian has targeted is retinitis pigmentosa, a group of inherited diseases that cause degeneration of the retina (in the back of the eye where millions of photoreceptors capture light rays that the brain turns into images). "There is no cure for this and it is certainly a genetic disease," he says. People with retinitis pigmentosa experience a gradual decline in their vision because the eye's photoreceptor cells slowly die off.
C-TRACER researchers are trained to think in terms of the full cycle of developing treatments—from laboratory to operating room to clinical rehabilitation, or, as Balasubramanian says, "from bench to bedside." One example of this research is the practice of using stem cells taken from a healthy eye's limbus, the area around the cornea where stem cells are stored, to create a layer of healthy cells to replace damaged ones in the cornea, the transparent, dome-shaped layer of cells covering the front of the eye. Ophthalmologists do this by creating a patch of cells from a surgically removed slice of the limbus and stitching it to the damaged cornea. Similar limbal stem cell transplant work has been done by physicians at the University of Melbourne's Center for Eye Research Australia and the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery in Fitzroy, Australia.
Although the stem cell approach was not invented at LV Prasad, the institute has treated about 500 patients with a success rate of nearly 75 percent, Balasubramanian says. C-TRACER and LV Prasad has also tuned its work to pay particular attention to the genetic conditions that lead to visual impairment. C-TRACER will open with a staff of five scientists, 22 graduate students and six clinical researchers. The facility occupies 16,000 square feet (1,485 square meters) on the LV Prasad institute's fifth floor, but plans are to expand to 25,000 square feet (2,320 square meters) by 2009.
See what we're tweeting about
13 Comments
Add Commentmy mom is suffering from retina pigmentosa from last 35 years... in this article it is mention that there is no cure for Rp, will it be cured after R&D... is R&D is going on... when it is be sucessful...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisemail: Itsdollykukreja@rediffmail.com
my father has retina detachment in both eyes .the rh eye was operated for vitero retinal surgery ,but no sucess . the left eye is also deterioting .....his vision is almost nil however during day he is able to see blurred images in the sunlight ...is stem celltherapy or gene therapy a ray of hope .pls advise ajay desai pune ,shaliniadesai@rediffmail.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe second sentence in the first paragraph is incomplete.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJ. Walter Lynch
jamwallyn@aol.com
I have damaged tissue in the back of my left eye. When I was about five or six years old I use to hang with my uncle and his friend when they played with their BB guns. I was hit in the eye with a BB. I have some vision in my eye. The upper left corner of my left eye's vision is darkend. Can I be helped with this growing new cells technology? I'm 34 now and my visision is still the same. Please respond.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDear Sir/Madam,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have disability to see by my left eye since my birth. I am not completely blind, but i could the things in a blurred vision. Please, suggest me whether i can cell technology or any equivalent treatement to get the clear vision. Thanks.
Regards,
Ali.
Hi
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy 3 year old daughter is legally blind due to colobomas in her retnas and iris'. Can this help her? She has the key hole in both eyes. Her case is difficult because her eyes never fully formed. Just looking at where stem cell research is at and if it can help my little one.
A friend just forwarded this to me. As we all know of a few important people who really need vision repair, this video is worth watching. The vets wounded in war should especially get this message. I just hope we don't have to go to Australia to get it. Follow-up definitely worth pursuing and passing on.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://gizmodo.com/5277456/stem-cell-contact-lenses-cure-blindness-in-less-than-a-month
Here's an article that names the involved people and institutions:
Stem cells used to restore sight for corneal disease sufferers
Leigh Dayton, Science writer | May 28, 2009
Article from:� The Australian
THREE Australians have had their sight restored thanks to their own stem cells and ordinary contact lenses.
Although the novel technique was used to reverse blinding corneal disease, it promises to be a quick, painless and cheap treatment for other visual disorders. It may even be useful for repairing damaged skin, the researchers reported today in the journal Transplantation.
The team leader, UNSW stem cell scientist Nick Di Girolamo said: We're quietly excited. We don't know yet if (the correction) will remain stable, but if it does it's a wonderful technique .
According to team member Stephanie Watson�- an opthalmic surgeon with Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital�- two of the three patients were legally blind in the treated eye; they can now read big letters on the eye chart. The third could read the top few rows of the chart but is now able to pass the vision test for a driving license.
Is there any consideration of applying stem cells to correcting irreguler astigmatism (corneal surface damage caused by Lasik)? I imagine this would be a question of removing the corneal flap and replacing it with stem cells.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder if they are considering applying stem cells to irregular astigmatism (corneal damage in this case caused through Lasik)?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have diagnosed with EALES disorder in my eyes. Currently 20/400 in my right, stronger eye. Will stem cell treatment help restore my vision?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease advise to address noted below.
Kindest regadrs.
Charles R. Burrell, C.P.M.
phone: 1-319-232-9125
e-mail: C-Burrell@mchsi.com
1416 Ridgemont Rd.
Waterloo, IA 50701
My 16 yr. old has poor eyesight from ROP. Born @ 1Lb. 5oz., he has had 9 eye surgeries. He has had strabismis repair, detached retinas, scalar an buckeles. There is MD in one eye and restricted periphiel in the left. His acuity is corrected to 20/300 - 20/400 uncorrected is 20-3500. he does wear contacts for correction. Is there anything that the stem cell business will correct? thanks from wishful parent.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI suffer from ischemic neurapathy. Can stem cell technology help me
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have the same damaged tissue in the back of my left eye, I there hope to repair this damaged, Thanks
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this