Stem Cell Treatment For Retinal Degeneration

Stem cell research for age related macular degeneration.

Stem cell treatment for retinal degeneration.

We believe stem cell based therapies for these conditions have the greatest chances of preventing blindness restoring sight and improving sufferers quality of life in the future. The project aims to bring stem cell therapy for retinal diseases especially for age related macular degeneration amd to the clinic as rapidly as possible. Stem cell therapy for macular degeneration is being explored in several different ways. In a dramatic development research is underway to use induced pluri potent stem cells for the treatment of macular degeneration because these cells would be made from the same person eliminating the need for immuno suppressive drugs as well as any religious objections.

A stem cell is a type of cell that is undifferentiated meaning that it can become any type of cell within the body. The promise of using stem cells to combat age related macular degeneration and the demand for it was sufficient to launch an ambitious fundraising effort in 2014 at cu that resulted in successfully recruiting canto soler and creating cellsight. The study appears in the january 2 cell reports. One is the use of embryonic stem cells such as the method reported by the american macular degeneration foundation.

Stem cell transplantation to treat macular degeneration. Another is the use of autologous stem cells the patient s own stem cells. In the experimental therapy a specially engineered sheet of stem cells is transplanted into the back wall of the eye to replace a layer of cells destroyed by age related macular degeneration amd. Doctors are looking for ways to use these cells to either replace or heal damaged cells that cause macular.

The discovery has advanced efforts to make stem cell derived rpe for transplantation into patients with geographic atrophy otherwise known as dry age related macular degeneration amd a leading cause of blindness in the u s.